GEORGE BOVELL beat the 2000 Olympic gold medallist, American Anthony Ervin for the second time in a week when winning the men's 50 metres freestyle, at the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup, at the Olympijsky Swimming Pool, in the Russian capital of Moscow, yesterday.

Yesterday's final contained two of the qualifiers for the 50m freestyle final at the London 2012 Olympics--Bovell, who finished seventh, and fifth-placed Ervin.

The fourth leg of the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup saw T&T's Bovell grabbing his third gold medal of the series and posting a sub-21 clocking for the second time when he finished the 50m sprint in 20.90 seconds. Ervin clocked 21.11 to grab silver. Third in 21.80 seconds was 26-year-old Russian Evgeny Lagunov, a bronze medallist in the 100 free at the 2005 European Short Course Swimming Championships. Finland record holder, Ari-Pekka Liukkonen posted 21.82 to cop fourth spot.

Bovell earned silver on Wednesday, the opening day of the Moscow meet, when finishing second to 20 year-old Australian Kenneth To in the 100m individual medley.

To date, Bovell has claimed three gold medals and five silvers in four World Cup meets. The 2004 Olympic Games 200 IM bronze medallist struck double gold in Sweden last weekend. He posted 20.82 seconds--a new national short course record--in winning the 50 free final. And in the 100 IM, T&T's best ever swimmer claimed top honours in a national record time of 51.56 seconds.

Yesterday, Bovell--21.99 seconds--qualified for the final as the second-placed finisher in heat five, behind Liukkonen, who clocked 21.94. Lagunov (21.79) was the fastest qualifier when winning heat six, beating Ervin (21.94) into second.