The Victoria star qualified by winning the men鈥檚 400-metre freestyle but was unable to pull fellow Island swimmers Peter Brothers and Jeremy Bagshaw to Rio with him.
The trio made the podium but only Cochrane achieved the Olympic qualifying standard of 3:50.44. The Claremont Secondary graduate won in 3:48.54 with Brothers second in 3:51.26 and Bagshaw third in 3:51.29.
The trio train together at Saanich Commonwealth Place pool.
Brothers is 19 and has a bright future looking to Tokyo 2020. SMUS-grad Bagshaw, 23 and the dream dimming, held his head in his hands as the reality of the moment sank in. The Pac-12 NCAA medallist out of Cal-Berkeley, an engineering major, had swum well enough in last year鈥檚 trials to make the Canadian team for both the 2015 Pan Am Games and world championships.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been heartbreaking to see some of my teammates miss the standard,鈥� said Cochrane, from Toronto.
鈥淚t鈥檚 rough. I see the hard work they do every single day over the past four years and it鈥檚 unbelievably difficult to know they won鈥檛 be able to see their dreams realized this summer. They are amazing athletes, and it just speaks to the ups and downs that come with Olympic qualifying.鈥�
But what the result does personally is set up Cochrane for the double at Rio, in the 400 freestyle, and the 1,500 freestyle. The qualifying race for the latter event, in which Cochrane was bronze medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver-medallist at the London 2012 Summer Games, is Sunday.
鈥淚 am ecstatic to have qualified for my third Olympic Games. It鈥檚 a huge amount of work since London that has paid off,鈥� said Cochrane.
He said he has targeted two medals for Rio.
Even though the 400 free is Cochrane鈥檚 minor event, he won gold over that distance last summer at the Pan Am Games and bronze at the world championships. Cochrane set the Canadian record of 3:43.46 in the 400 freestyle in winning gold at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
The 400 freestyle Thursday was a literal Island reunion with six Victorians making the final 鈥� Cochrane, Brothers, Bagshaw and Eric Hedlin from Island Swimming, Jon McKay from UVic/Pacific Coast and Keegan Zanatta from UBC.
Twitter.com/tc_vicsports
