George III looks beyond Sydney

Bovell glides through the water effortlessly with his good breaststroke technique.

By MARK POUCHET
Sports Desk

AT 6 ft 5 in and with a wing span as wide as an albatross's, George Bovell definitely is not wanting for the raw talent needed to compete successfully on a global level.

His talent was inherited in part from his mom Barbara who ran the 400m for Barbados at the 1972 Olympics where Mark Spitz created history with his seven-gold-medal haul. In part too it comes from his dad, George Snr, who was himself a successful swimmer at McGill University in Canada and good enough to cop the Witco Sportsman of the Year award in 1969.

George jnr's ability is there for all to see in the majestic strokes and the ease with which he glides through the water.

Ask Piranha Aquatics head coach Anil Roberts who believes Bovell has more God-given talent than Australian swimming phenom Ian Thorpe. Or Edmund Pouchet, coach of Blue Dolphins, who echoes the same sentiment.

Then there is the University of Florida's swimming boss Greg Troy, the world renowned coach of Olympic medallists Suriname's Anthony Nesty, Brazil's Gustavo Borges and USA's Greg Burgess, who has also shown interest in the T&T swimmer.

After seeing the T&T swim standout at a Regional Four meet in Clearwater, Florida in March, Troy told him "When you graduate, we will talk."

But on native talent alone, you can get only so far-which is not far enough for the 16-year-old Bovell who has his eyes firmly set on an Olympic medal, preferably gold. The teenager is only too well aware that old-fashioned hard work and serious competition are necessary ingredients in the making of a champion.

It was perhaps the main reason behind his move to Bolles School of Swimming in January. Then, George Snr, fearing that his son's training was becoming stagnated, dug deep into his pockets to fly junior out to the Florida private school to put the final touches to his preparation for the September 15-October 1 Sydney Games.

Being thrown into a new environment with Caribbean standouts Janelle Atkinson and Damien Alleyne, the young Bovell has found that the change of location, coach and programme has not affected him adversely. It meant more work in the breaststroke leg of the individual medley and more intense work overall. And in the brief two months he has been at Bolles, it has already meant visible improvement.

Just last month, Bovell opened some eyes with his two minute 5.89 second individual medley swim for Parques Piscine Olympique at the Canadian Spring Nationals in Etibocoke. Besides winning him the consolation final, Bovell's time was second only to the clocking posted by 1996 Olympic silver medallist in the event, Curtis Myden. It was an effort that left him and his new coach Larry Schof pleased. As pleased as he would have been with his three consolation final victories at the Pan Am Games in Winnipeg last year.

"It was a national record and my best unshaved and untapered," Bovell said. "Larry and I were both impressed with the time, especially since it was done during hard training."

And Bovell has adapted quite well to his new lifestyle.

On a typical day, the Olympic-bound athlete awakes at 5 a.m. in preparation for his two-hour morning practice session that begins at 5.30 a.m. There is just enough time to get breakfast and get ready for classes that run from 8.30 a.m. till 3 p.m. He rushes from school to complete a half-hour of running on the track and training with the medicine balls before his second session of the day, a gruelling two and three-quarters of an hour workout at 3.30 p.m. After dinner at 6.30 p.m, he devotes two hours to studying from 7.15 p.m. And at 10 p.m., the lights go out.

Whew!

That hectic schedule leaves little time for playing basketball with his friends or, when he was in Trinidad, spearfishing with his grandfather, also named George. But the more structured programme has not overwhelmed George III.

"It is a little more stressful but I've been able to balance the swimming and studies," he explained. "The hard part is when I have to travel to meets and miss school. Then I have to play catch up."

Hard too is being away from his family back home-his parents who, he says, have been very supportive, brother Nicholas and sister Rebecca. But he'll see them when he returns home for a week in July prior to the Caribbean Island Swimming Championships (CISC) in Aruba. In the meantime, the multiple national record holder will be honing his skills in the pool in anticipation of the competition Down Under.

And there are a few things he still needs to work on in the CISC and the July 13-16 Janet Evans Invitational. Like swimming fast in the morning prelims after years of practising the opposite.

"I think I'll have to drink coffee to get me going," he jokes.

But he is very serious about his chances of earning a semifinal place in the 200m IM in Sydney.

That's why Schof and his charge are all focussed on producing his best swim in Australia. He has now put his goal for his pet event at 2:02.

Local coaches Pouchet and Roberts feel confident he can go faster and upset a few big names at the quadrennial games. Bovell himself believes that mounting the podium is more likely to come in Athens 2004.

"I think I'll have a good chance of winning a medal," he offers, "at the next Olympics."

But come September 15, Bovell will be looking to marry talent and hard work in what he hopes will be a successful relationship. And there will still be time for the offspring to come into their own in Athens.

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