It wasnt the gold he was looking for, but it was good enough. Victorias Ryan Cochrane followed up his 2008 Olympic bronze medal with a silver in the same event, the mens 1500-metre freestyle, on Saturday. "You know, I talked for four years about trying to win that event. I was really satisfied, though, with the way I put together this race," he told CTVOlympics. "I know Ive done the training, so Im happy with it." Competing on swimmings final night in Londons Olympic Aquatics Centre, Cochrane finished second in a time of 14:39.63 -- a personal best and over three seconds faster than his bronze-medal swim in Beijing. Chinas Sun Yang earned gold in world-record time to finish with about a 15-metre lead in 14:31.02 seconds. Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia was third. Now 23, Cochrane was Canadas only swimming medallist four years ago at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. In the ensuing years, however, he worked as a catalyst of change within Canadas swimming program, rallying his team to strive for better. This year, Canadas Brent Hayden joined Canadas distance specialist as a podium finisher, adding a bronze medal in the mens 100-metre freestyle, earlier this week. Saturdays distance race got off to a rocky start, as noise from the crowd prompted the announcer to tell the swimmers to "stand down" shortly after they crouched into their ready positions. At the sound of the announcers voice, Sun took took off like a shot into the pool. Officials quickly absolved the gold-medal favourite of a false start ruling, and Sun was allowed several seconds to catch his breath before he took his place back on the block. Once the competition officially got underway, Sun grabbed the lead within the first hundred metres of the lengthy race. It soon became clear that he was gunning for the record; by the 300-metre wall, he was already over a second ahead of his own year-old, world-leading pace. At the 2011 World Championships, Sun became just the second swimmer to lower a world record since the banning of the high-tech, buoyant swimsuits at the beginning of 2010 (Suns lowered mark on Saturday brought the post-ban count up to 10). En-route to bronze in Cochranes first Olympic final at the Beijing Games four years ago, the Canadian swimmer was in first place at the 1,000-metre mark. Two lengths of the pool later, however, he began to lose his stride. Then 19, Cochrane had run out of gas; he soon fell out of the gold-medal race. Despite holding on to finish third in Beijing, Cochrane was left unsatisfied with the result. "I was absolutely aggravated because I just felt like I didnt make tough choices in my racing," he said. So on Saturday night under the Londons wavy Aquatics Centre roof, as Cochrane approached the 700-metre mark in third place he was surprised at how fresh he felt. "You know, the first half actually felt really easy," he said. "It was a surprise because four years ago it hurt from the start." Both Sun and Park Tae-Hwan, the Korean swimmer whose reinstatement into the 400m final bumped Cochrane out of a qualifying place one week ago, were ahead. Cochrane chose that moment to make his move. He picked up the pace, dropping more than a half-second on his next split, and overtook Park for second place. The Canadian held on to the silver-medal position for the next 500 metres with ease before Mellouli, who had steadily worked to catch the leaders from an early fourth-place standing, began to mount a challenge. The Tunisian swimmer crept closer, and through the final lap he swam with Cochrane in a dead heat for second place. Speaking with CTVs Perry Solkowski following his preliminary race, Cochrane had admitted to feeling more pressure as a defending Olympic medallist than he had expected. That pressure continued into the final metres of the Canadian swimmers race. Now an experienced swimmer in his second Olympic final, Cochrane knew he had left nothing on the table, and not a single extra second in the pool. "You have no excuse not to get your hand on the wall first," he told himself as he neared the wall. He edged Mellouli by 0.68 seconds. "This meet was probably the hardest meet Ive ever been to," he said later, just before his first silver medal was hung around Cochranes neck. "I just wanted to make up for lost time for the past four years. "This is the happiest Ive been after any race of my career. Surprising swims are usually the best, but this wasnt surprising at all. This is what Id planned for. It was second place, but Im still progressing. Im faster than four years ago, without the [now banned] suits." jerseys from china . -- Wesley Matthews scored 21 points, J. wholesale jerseys Give away price free shipping . of Norway took the overall lead in the Tour de Ski after winning Thursdays 35-kilometre free pursuit cross-country race. http://www.jerseysfromchinac... . -- Different horse, same result for Luis Contreras. [url=http://www.jerseysfromchinacheapwholesale.com/]wholesale nfl jerseys . Bynum is in pain when he walks or attempts even light physical activity, except for swimming. He had been recovering from a bone bruise in his right knee and injured his left knee while bowling last month. wholesale jerseys from china . -- Jim Harbaugh might have learned more about his San Francisco 49ers during 20 minutes of sleepwalking than at any other time in his two years as their coach.OAKLAND, Calif. -- Brandon McCarthys hair is growing back fast and that big scar on the right side of his head is hardly noticeable anymore. The Oakland Athletics pitcher feels nearly normal again just more than three weeks after undergoing brain surgery following a frightening injury in which a line drive off the bat of the Angels Erick Aybar struck him Sept. 5. So good, in fact, doctors have cleared him to play light catch Saturday -- a big deal in his recovery and for his immense boredom. Not once has he lost his sense of humour through the scary ordeal that the club referred to as "life-threatening" early on post-surgery. "I have really fast growing hair," McCarthy said. "Im already at the point now that I dont know what to do with it. Do I shave it again and keep showing off the scar? Im going to have to make a decision soon. Ive never shaved my head before. Now with the scar, I can walk around San Francisco and look tough." McCarthy stepped back on the field Friday night for the first time since his frightening injury to accept the As nomination for the Roberto Clemente Award, accompanied by wife, Amanda. He was a bit emotional in the dugout earlier given the outpouring of support from fans, players and teams around baseball surrounding the first trying, testing moment in his life, he said. He received a warm ovation from the sparse Coliseum crowd. "I think its really kind of what I need," said McCarthy, who has been practicing his mechanics in his living room. "Get my mind off everything, just kind of get back to doing stuff, just the sort of mental stimulation of it." McCarthy attended the series opener with Seattle on Friday night, exactly six months to the day after he was Oaklands opening day starter against the Mariners in Tokyo. He went 8-6 with a 3.24 ERA this year in his sixth big league season and second with the As. McCarthy was 9-9 with a 3.32 ERA last season. The pitcher expects his off-season throwing program to be like any other this winter, while monitoring himself forr concussion symptoms.dddddddddddd "There are times when I get a little mildly cloudy, but its not even something I would describe as being even annoying," he said. "Its the kind of feeling you have if youve had three drinks and are not quite sharp, I guess." He spends the off-season in Dallas. "Normal," McCarthy said of whats next. "Im just starting to go into atrophy here and boredom, so Ive got to do something physically to get the blood going again," McCarthy said. "And then when it gets into the off-season, a lot of it is just based on concussion symptoms and if I get headaches or something or a little dizzy doing something, then just scale back. I think you just kind of push against the wall until you find out what your bodys going to do and what it can get through, and then just sort of resume as normal." The 29-year-old McCarthy sustained an epidural hemorrhage, brain contusion and skull fracture on the play. A few days later, he was back on Twitter cracking jokes. "It wasnt like it was a surreal thing. When it happened I was aware of what happened for the most part," he said. "Everything kind of after is not fun ... but it was kind of something we had to get through. More than anything, I was really thirsty. I was on a salt drip for a few days, which is big for swelling on the brain. I couldnt drink water, I couldnt drink anything. Really, thats the one thing I remember from this whole thing, being unbelievably thirsty for about four days." While McCarthy can become a free agent after the season, he said he has plenty of things on his mind to worry too much about his baseball future. Though he made it clear he would love to stay put with the As. He credits the medical staff, general manager Billy Beane, assistant GM David Forst and so many others for their support through his injury. "I cant thank everybody enough," McCarthy said. "The way the front office has handled it is beyond first class. Id definitely say Id like to get back here." ' ' '