He aims to catch the leader, and one day he just might.
Ryan Cochrane of Victoria won the silver medal in the men鈥檚 1,500-metre freestyle as the 2013 FINA world aquatics championships closed Sunday in Barcelona. Just as significantly, Cochrane dramatically narrowed the gap between himself and gold-medallist Sun Yang of China, the Olympic champion and world record-holder who many consider unbeatable.
Cochrane led going into the final 80 metres, but Yang went into turbo mode to overtake the Islander and touched in 14 minutes, 41.15 seconds while Cochrane touched just over a second later in 14:42.85.
That gap was nearly nine seconds last year in London when Yang won the Olympic gold medal and Cochrane the silver.
鈥淭his makes me excited for the future,鈥� said Cochrane by phone from Barcelona.
Yang won his third gold medal of the 2013 world championships by sweeping the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles. But on Sunday, his invincibility wasn鈥檛 quite so obvious as he was seriously pushed by Cochrane as the Claremont grad at least hinted at the possibility of a real chance to win it all by Rio 2016.
鈥淚 learned from my mistakes earlier in the week [when he was just out-touched at the wall in both the 400- and 800-metre freestyles, settling for fourth place in the 400 and winning bronze in the 800],鈥� said Cochrane, who said he let the other swimmers dictate the terms in those races.
Cochrane and his Victoria Swimming Academy/Island Swimming coach Randy Bennett, who also coaches the Canadian team, recalibrated for the 1,500 metres and it showed as Cochrane went out hard from the start.
鈥淲e had our race plan in the 1,500 metres and stuck to it. I was satisfied with my race,鈥� said Cochrane, who became the all-time most decorated Canadian swimmer in the world championships by winning his sixth career worlds medal.
The Yang-Cochrane 1-2 in the 1,500 mirrored not only the results from the 2012 London Olympics but also the 2011 world championships in Shanghai.
Gregorio Paltrinieri captured the bronze medal Sunday in an Italian national record 14:45.37.
鈥淭he field is not getting easier, just deeper,鈥� noted Cochrane, who has two Olympic medals in the 1,500 metres including bronze from Beijing 2008.
From Saanich Commonwealth Place to Barcelona, it was a heady two weeks for Victoria Academy of Swimming/Island Swimming as the club matched, if not topped, what entire nations accomplished at the 2013 FINA worlds in the Catalan capital.
Cochrane鈥檚 silver Sunday was the club鈥檚 fourth medal of the world championships for sa国际传媒. The others came through Cochrane鈥檚 bronze in the 800-metre freestyle and breakout medals by Eric Hedlin, with his silver in the men鈥檚 open-water 5K, and Hilary Caldwell, who lowered the Canadian record three times over two days in winning bronze in the women鈥檚 200-metre backstroke.
Victoria Academy/Island Swimming accounted for all four swimming medals, and more than half of the seven overall Canadian medals (including three from Quebec divers), in the 2013 world aquatics championships.
Emerging Victoria Academy/Island Swimming performers Alec Page, who was an Olympian last year at age 18, was 13th Sunday in the men鈥檚 400-metre IM (4:16.62) and 18-year-old Will Brothers 25th in the 1,500-metre freestyle (15:24.74) in his first world championships.
鈥淭he younger group coming up in the club sees what we do on a regular basis and they can imagine being the best in the world,鈥� said Cochrane. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 an inspiring feeling to have in any club.鈥�
