Ryan Cochrane beat the clock, and now he just has to beat the rest of the field.

The 20-year-old swimmer from Victoria smashed his own Canadian record in the men's 800-metre freestyle event Tuesday at the world aquatic championships in Rome. His time of seven minutes 43.61 seconds was the second-fastest among qualifiers and earned him a trip to Wednesday's final.

“It was tough going in after the 400, but I'm happy I got myself right this morning,” said Cochrane, who finished seventh in Sunday's 400-metre freestyle final. “I was expecting to lower the Canadian record.

“The finals will be all about racing and I won't be concerned with the time as much. I just want to go in there and hopefully be on the podium,” added Cochrane, who won bronze in the 1,500-metre freestyle event at last summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.

Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli had the best time in Tuesday's 800-metre showdown, touching the wall in 7:41.82 seconds. Cochrane, topping his previous Canadian mark of swimming 7:47.11, was second in the same heat, with Italy's Federico Colbertado turning in the third-best time (7:44.29).

Two other Canadian records fell Tuesday in preliminary races, including Vancouver's Scott Dickens topping his own record in the 50-metre breaststroke event in a time of 27.45 seconds. Dickens, whose previous best was 27.81 seconds which he set two weeks ago at the world championship trials, finished in 17th place, just out of the top 16 who qualified for the semifinal. Montreal's Mathieu Bois was 33rd.

In the men's 200-metre butterfly, Vancouver's Stefan Hirniak stopped the clock in a Canadian-best time of 1:57.43, erasing the previous mark of 1:57.45, which was set by Calgary's Adam Sioui last year's Olympic trials. Hirniak wound up 23rd, while Anders McIntyre of Vernon, B.C., was 41st.

“It's my first best time in this event since 2005,” said Hirniak. “It's way past due and it feels awesome to get it.”

Also failing to move on were Heather MacLean of Etobicoke, Ont., and Alexandra Gabor of Whitehorse, who finished 18th and 20th respectively in the women's 200-metre freestyle.

In later events Tuesday, Vancouver's Annamay Pierse will be looking to capture Canada's first medal of the worlds, as she competes in the 100-metre breaststroke.