Team Canada’s first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games
The first day of the Indian Commonwealth Games turned out to be a lucky for Team Canada, as its swimmer from Victoria managed to clinch his first gold medal in the 400 meter freestyle event at the S.P. Mukherjee Swimming Complex in New Delhi. Ryan Cochrane
is the 1500 meter Olympic medallist. After the spectacular opening ceremony on Sunday evening, Ryan’s performance made the day for the delegates of Team Canada.
Talking to the correspondents after he emerged victorious from the race, Ryan said that he is still working on the 400 meter events. He also added that he is not very fond of meets on the first day of any mega event, but he was glad that it was not as stressful
as he expected it to be.
Ryan walked to the medal podium amidst a group of media persons, eager to get a glimpse of the proud 21-year-old athlete who is on his way to become the best swimmer of Canada and then the world, following the footsteps of the Olympic gold medallist Alex
Bauman. Alex is one of the most celebrated swimmers of the modern swimming arena and has always been the source of motivation and inspiration for Ryan Cochrane. Ryan hesitated from being compared to the great swimmer, since he said that he would rather want
a comparison once his swimming career is over. Ryan also revealed that he wishes to swim for another 6 years and also promised breathtaking performances at the London Olympic 2012.
The way Ryan was taken to the podium where he was presented the gold medal by the Indian sports minister M.S. Gill was simply overwhelming. He marched the Indian military protocol off the pool deck.
The swim was not an easy win for Ryan Cochrane. He had a hard time holding back some of the most talented swimmers at the Games, including Ryan Napoleon of Australia. It took Ryan Cochrane to finish the 400 meter race in a time of 3 minutes and 48.48 seconds,
while the latter managed to complete the swim in 3 minutes and 48.59 seconds.
At the end of the race, Cochrane admitted that he especially needs to improve his last 100 meters.
The extremely happy and pleased CEO of Swimming Canada, Pierre Lafontaine said that he expected Cochrane to perform exactly how he did at the meet. He also added that Ryan is an ambitious swimmer who wants to prove his talent by winning gold at every meet
of the Commonwealth Games.
It was generally a good night for the Swimming Canada squad at New Delhi. Apart from Ryan winning the gold medal, Julia Wilkinson of Stratford managed to clinch the bronze medal in the women’s 200 meter Individual Medley meet, while another swimmer from
Victoria, Stefan Hirniak also won away the bronze medal in the men’s 200 meter butterfly event in a time period of 1 minute and 57.26 seconds. The winner of the gold medal in this event, Chad Le Clos of South Africa wrapped up the race in 1 minute and 56.48
seconds.
Wilkinson grabbed the bronze medal by finishing the race in just 2 minutes and 12.09 seconds. The winner of this event was the Australian swimmer, Alicia Coutts who concluded the meet in 2 minutes and 09.70 seconds. After the race, Wilkinson said that she
got what she was striving for in the pool for. She added that the pressure of the event was somewhat high, but she kept calm and did not let it affect her performance.
Swimming is one of the most prominent disciplines in the Commonwealth Games New Delhi. Since some of the high profile swimmers withdrew from the Games due to security concerns, the significance of the sport was naturally lowered. The Indian Swimming Federation,
thus increased the number of swimmers in the Indian Swimming Team at the Games, to cover up for those who did not make it to New Delhi and to increase the probability of Indian athletes winning the medals.
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