Bovell smashes TT record

TRINIDAD and Tobago swimmer George Bovell III equalled and then smashed his own national 100 metres freestyle record at the Olympic Games in Athens yesterday. The first ever Trinidadian to reach two semi-finals at the same Games, matched the defending Olympic Games gold medallist Alexander Popov the Russian “Pocket Rocket” for most of his semi-final heat but faded to finish fifth in 49.53 seconds.

He bettered his previous mark of 49.61 and finished 12th overall in the event and was eliminated. Earlier, Bovell III was disqualified from his quarter-final race after finishing third in the eighth heat, for a false start. This puzzling disqualification was protested by his coach Anil Roberts, and Bovell III was reinstated after officials reviewed a video tape of the race. The video in fact showed the Trinidad and Tobago champion was seventh of eight to leave the starting blocks. Despite his tardy quarter-final start, Bovell III swam a magnificent race to finish behind Australian ace Ian Thorpe (49.17) and Russian Andrey Kapralov (49.52).

“We protested on the grounds that the description of the infraction was improper,” Bovell’s coach Anil Roberts told CMC Sport. “The official just wrote ‘false start’ and this is inadequate, a false start could be anything, flinching, moving off the blocks too early etc., and the infraction must be specifically stated on the disqualification sheet … plus he got a very bad start, so there was no advantage for him,” Roberts added. Six Caribbean swimmers were on show in the morning session including the promising Barbadian teenager Bradley Ally, who swam a personal best in the 200 breaststroke. Bovell swam an outstanding race from lane eight. He was off slowly — a reaction time of .84 seconds — in the race that included the superb Australian 200-free champion Ian Thorpe. But the 2003 double Pan Am Games gold medallist swam well enough to touch second at the 50-metre mark in 23.72 seconds and battled through the second 50 to place third in 49.61 seconds, equalling his personal best for the event.
But less than five seconds after the race, the Aquatic Centre monitor showed him disqualified.

Officials stated that he was taken down from third for a false start, but his coach Anil Roberts successfully protested the disqualification and TT’s swimming ace was reinstated for a spot in Tuesday evening’s semi-finals as the 12th fastest qualifier. Thorpe won the race in 49.17 seconds, with Russian Andrey Kapralov second in 49.52 seconds. At the rifle-shooting centre, Trinidad and Tobago’s Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games champion Roger Daniel and the US Virgin Islands’ Chris Rice had futile qualification bids in the men’s 50-metre pistol event at the Shooting Centre.

Daniel had his best shoots in series four and six when he registered 89s and ended 33rd with a 545 total. Rice was last in the field of 41, shooting a 529 total. Bovell III will go into action again this morning in the preliminary round of his pet event the 200 metres Individual Medley. His Trinidad and Tobago teammate Linda McEachrane splashes off in the 100 metres freestyle event also today.