Two Canadians qualified for second swims on the third day of the FINA World Championships in Barcelona.
In his second event of the World Championships 1500 freestyle Olympic silver medalist Ryan Cochrane qualified for the 800 freestyle final in third position recording a 7:49.58 in the preliminaries. Cochrane qualified just behind American Connor Jaeger (7:49.28) and China’s Sun Yang (7:49.37).
“It’s exciting to have a smooth morning swim and it sets me up for tomorrow,” said Cochrane.
“It was pretty hard coming back from the 400. Fourth place by two tenths of a second, it stings a bit but the 800 and the 1,500 are definitely my more comfortable events.”
In 2009 Cochrane finished third with a time of 7:41.92 and in 2011 finished second behind Sun in a time of 7:41.86, which is still his lifetime best.
“Ryan swam a very controlled 800 free and got himself an appropriate lane in the middle of the pool,” said Randy Bennett, head coach of the national team and Cochrane’s coach at the Victoria Academy of Swimming. “He set himself up for a great final.”
Barbara Jardin grabbed the final spot in the semi-finals of the 200 freestyle with her preliminary swim of 1:58.93. Jardin’s lifetime best of 1:57.34 and has a season’s best of 1:58.25.
In the semi-finals Jardin did get closer to her season’s best posting a time of 1:58.66 finishing in the 14th position, “I’m happy about improving my time in finals, also I moved up two spots so I’m definitely happy about that,” Jardin told Swimming Canada.
“I didn’t know what to expect because I’ve been going 2:01 since after Trials (in April). We put a lot of training into it and I was trying to find a balance between my schooling and my swimming, so I’m just really happy with that time.”