BEIJING - Ryan Cochrane collected Canada's fourth medal of the Olympic Games and ended the swim team's eight-year drought in the pool by finishing third Sunday in the gruelling 1,500-metres.
"I'm so happy with it," said the 19-year-old University of Victoria student. "It was a hard race. I think the first half took a lot out of me for the second half. I just couldn't be happier."
Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli won the race in 14 minutes 40.84 seconds. Australia's Grant Hackett, the world record holder, was second in 14:41.53.
The tall, lean Cochrane was timed in 14:42.69 and had to hold of Russia's Yuriy Prilukov who finished about half a second behind.
Cochrane led the race after a 1,000 metres. He slipped to third after 1,050, climbed to second after 1,150, then went back to third.
"I could see Prilukov coming and I knew he was going to have a good back end," said Cochrane, water still dripping from his ears. "I just did what ever I could to hold him off."
The last Canadian swimmer to win an Olympic medal was Curtis Myden who finished third in the 400-metre individual medley at the Sydney Games.
Canada had a terrible meet in Athens, failing to win a medal in the pool for the first time since 1964. That resulted in head coach Dave Johnson being fired and Pierre Lafontaine being hired to revitalize Swimming Canada.
The swim team came into the Beijing Games wanting to win at least one medal but their chances seemed slim after some of their best hopes didn't reach the podium. The men's 4x200-metre relay finished fifth in their race while Brent Hayden, the reigning world champion in the 100-metres, failed to qualify for the finals.
Cochrane said he knew the team was down to its last chance to collect some hardware.
"I think I pressured myself more than anyone else," he said. "It's what I wanted to do. "
The medal came on the last day of pool events at the National Aquatics Centre of Water Cube. The open water races will be held during the week.
"It was really hard to compete on the last day," said Cochrane, who just missed qualifying for the Athens Olympics. "The team has been so supportive. We really showed what we can do. I think we're really ecstatic to be Canadians right now."
The blue building, which looks like a box wrapped in bubble wrap, was packed with fans anxious to watch American superstar Michael Phelps win his Olympic-record eighth gold medal in the 4x100-metre medley relay.
Cochrane, 19, qualified for the final by swimming an Olympic record time of 14:40.84 Friday, a time that would have earned him a gold medal Sunday. Hackett later broke that mark with a time of 14:38.92 in the preliminaries.
Coming into Sunday, Canada's best finish in the pool was Mike Brown's fourth in the 200-metre backstroke.
