After bronze and silver, there’s only one colour remaining in Ryan Cochrane’s inexorable march to the top of the podium.

The Victoria swimmer won the silver medal in the 1,500-metre freestyle Sunday at the 2009 world aquatics championships in Rome to follow up his bronze medal in that event at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Cochrane, a graduate of Claremont Secondary, also took bronze earlier at the world championships in the 800-metre freestyle.

Unlike Beijing, where he was a complete unknown, Cochrane didn’t sneak up on the swim world in Rome. Everybody knew who he was going into Sunday’s final.

“I learned a lot about this race from the Olympic race last year,” Cochrane said in an interview yesterday from Rome.

“I’m happy with the silver. I had hoped for gold. Next year, hopefully, it will be gold in whatever races I do.”

Cochrane was the first dual-medallist Canadian swimmer at the world championships since 1997. He got to share the moment with his parents, John and Donna, who were in Rome to watch the world championships and celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.

“I’m ecstatic with the results,” Cochrane said. “Gaining two medals for the [Canadian] team is great. I’m happy I made everyone proud.”

Cochrane has accomplished his world and Olympic medal haul by age 20. The Island Swim Club star’s ambitious stated goal of breaking Aussie legend Grant Hackett’s world record in the 1,500 metres doesn’t seem unattainable.

Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia, Cochrane’s greatest rival in distance freestyle, followed up his 1,500-metre Olympic gold medal from Beijing with world championship gold in 14 minutes, 37.28 seconds.

The sleek Tunisian won pulling away, and displayed his overpowering form over the final 100 metres.

“It was frustrating to get beat by Oussama once again. This is a real rivalry starting,” said Cochrane.

“Maybe next time we meet, it will be different.”

Cochrane, as usual, went after it from the start and took the early lead along with Olympic medallist and 800-metre world champion Lin Zhang of China. The UVic student gave up the lead briefly through the middle portion before regaining it with about 600 metres remaining.

But, as he had in Beijing, Mellouli again displayed a superior kick down the stretch.

Cochrane was across in 14:41.38 and comfortably ahead of bronze medallist Yan Sun of China (14:46.84).

“I’m happy with how the first half of the race went,” said Cochrane.

“It was unexpectedly easy at the beginning. But I knew from Beijing how hard it was going to be at the end among a field like this. I tried to build to the last half. In the end, I had a decent time and a better medal than last year.”

Cochrane was spurred all week by what he perceived as an under-achieving seventh place in the 400-metre freestyle.

“The 400 did not pan out. It was difficult to get back from that. But maybe mentally, it prepared me for the rest of the week,” he said.

Cochrane’s coach at Island Swimming, Randy Bennett, who trains the young Victoria star at Saanich Commonwealth Place, was also the Canadian team coach in Rome.

“It was extremely helpful having my home coach Randy here, but also a double-edged sword because he was stressed about the overall team performance,” said Cochrane, who now heads to Leeds with the Canadian team for the British short-course open.

“Both of us are looking forward to the next three years leading to London [host of the 2012 Summer Olympics].”

Cochrane accounted for two of Canada’s three swimming medals at the world championships, with UBC swimmer Annamay Pierse taking the other with silver in the women’s 200-metre breaststroke.

Canada’s swimmers set one world record in the pool, courtesy of Pierse in her semifinal race, and 17 Canadian records. From 10 swim finalists at Beijing, Canada improved to 13 finalists at Rome.

Overall, Canada finished with nine medals, four silver and five bronze in the world aquatics championships disciplines of pool and open-water swimming, synchronized swimming, diving and water polo.

Following Cochrane, the next best Island performance was turned in by 17-year-old diver Riley McCormick of Victoria, ninth in the men’s 10-metre platform and seventh with Reuben Ross of Regina in 10-metre synchronized.

The 2011 world aquatics championships will be in Shanghai.

cdheensaw@tc.canwest.com