Cochrane golden in meet record time, teammate Caldwell medals

June, 11, 2015

BARCELONA, Spain – Canada's Ryan Cochrane set a course record whilst posting 2015's sixth-best time in men's 800-metre freestyle on Thursday at the Mare Nostrum Series.

 

At Barcelona, the 26-year-old Cochrane continued his preparation for next month's Pan Am Games and world championships by winning the 800 freestyle in in seven minutes 52.51 seconds, more than 3 1/2 seconds ahead of Great Britain's Stephen Milne (7:56.12) and South Africa's Myles Brown (7:58.35). The two-time Olympic medallist also took more than five seconds off the previous pool record of 7:58.32 set in 2011.

 

“The 800 is a race I'm looking forward to at worlds this summer,” said Cochrane, referring to the July 24-Aug. 9 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia. “And I'm happy to be able to break the Mare Nostrum record in the process.

 

“The time is on the better end of where I've been at this time [of the season],” Cochrane added. “So I am taking it as an encouraging sign.”

 

Cochrane's win was the first of two medals for Canadians based at the High Performance Centre – Victoria. Hilary Caldwell, 24, won silver in women's 200-m backstroke.

 

Caldwell, 24, posted a time of 2:09.36, finishing second after the Iron Lady, Hungary's Katinka Hosszu, who touched the wall at 2:08.41. Caldwell kept her podium position by holding off a push from Great Britain's Elizabeth Simmonds (2:10.14) during the final 25 metres.

 

It's an auspicious result for Caldwell, who has the bar set high in 200-m backstroke after winning the bronze medal at the 2013 worlds.

 

“I am pretty happy with that swim,” said Caldwell. “I've done a lot of work on keeping my stroke rates consistent and that showed. It was a bit faster than I was at [Team Canada] Trials [in April] where I was tapered. So that's always a good sign for faster racing this summer.

 

“I'm going to try and come back with another good one in Monaco and I'll be feeling really confident going into the summer.”

 

Another HPC-Victoria swimmer, Alec Page, was 14th in men's 100-m butterfly. Page had near-identical times in his preliminary and B final, clocking in a 55.07 and 55.09 seconds respectively.

 

Sixteen-year-old Mary-Sophie Harvey was the youngest woman to reach the B final in women's 200-m individual medley. The Montreal-based Harvey finished 15th after touching the wall at 2:18.74 during her second swim of the day.

 

The final leg of the Mare Nostrum series takes place in Monaco on Saturday and Sunday.