Ryan Cochrane of Victoria won the bronze medal in the men's 800-metre freestyle Wednesday at the 2013 FINA world aquatics championships in Barcelona, Spain, after a furious final charge to the wall in which all three medals were for the taking.
“There are so many great competitors that in this 800, I think anybody had a chance at the podium,” said Cochrane, the Claremont Secondary graduate who is studying business at the University of Victoria.
Defending champion Sun Yang of China won gold in seven minutes, 41.36 seconds with Michael McBroom of the U.S. (7:43.60) just out-touching Cochrane (7:43.70) for the silver medal.
“The touches aren’t my friend this meet,” said Cochrane, who was just out-touched for bronze earlier at the worlds in the 400-metre freestyle.
“It was hard getting fourth place [in the 400 metres]. It’s a frustrating place to be, but in a world championships anything can happen. To know I could claw my way back onto the podium [in the 800 metres] is great and we have the 1,500 to look forward to after this.”
It was Cochrane's third consecutive medal in the 800-metre freestyle at the world championships following silver at Shanghai in 2011 and bronze at Rome in 2009.
“The field is getting faster and faster and I think one of the mistakes we made is playing into everybody else’s race tactics,” said the 24-year-old Islander, of his slip from worlds silver to bronze in the 800.
“Seeing that the field was so even shows we were all trying hard but maybe not executing the race plans we wanted to.”
Randy Bennett, who is Cochrane's personal coach with Victoria Academy/Island Swimming at Saanich Commonwealth Place and also coach of the Canadian national team, described the 800 final Wednesday as “a very, very interesting race.”
“Five guys were in it all the way and that's not that normal in the distance freestyle,” Bennett said.
“It’s usually a two- or three-horse race. But it was interesting – [Cochrane] could have been fifth.”
The 800 metres is not an Olympic event.
Cochrane is a two-time Olympic medallist in the 1,500-metre freestyle with a breakout bronze at Beijing 2008 and the silver medal at London 2012.
The 1,500 at Barcelona will be contested over the weekend with the qualifying races Saturday and the final on Sunday.
“In the 1,500, you can have front-end speed, back-end speed, and people who have different technical sides,” Cochrane said.
Cochrane pushed Canada's medal tally at the 2013 FINA world aquatics championships to five (two silver, three bronze) with Island performers contributing two of those. Three of Canada's medals (silver and two bronze) have come through the still-potent national diving team. The others were won by Cochrane in the 800 free and fellow-Victorian Eric Hedlin, who took silver in the open-water 5K.
Islanders have accounted for four top-five finishes at the 2013 worlds with Cochrane fourth in the 400-metre freestyle and 2012 London Olympics bronze-medallist Richard Weinberger of Victoria fifth in the open-water 10K, after making the mental mistake of missing a turn around a buoy.
Cochrane said he, Hedlin and Weinberger all benefit from training together in Victoria. Cochrane and Hedlin train with Victoria Academy/Island Swimming and Weinberger with UVic/Pacific Coast Swimming. It's part of the reason for the Island's emerging reputation as the distance-swimming capital of Canada, he noted.
“Just being able to have a training group that pushes each other every day [at Saanich Commonwealth Place] is the best thing you can hope for. Distance training is never interesting. It’s back and forth on that black line for hours every day. But just knowing you have that group behind you and that you can expect that much more from everyone really pushes us,” Cochrane said.
“For years, I trained by myself. Now that we have a strong group of athletes and we’re really getting faster every year, I think you can expect great things from all of us.”
