Men’s 800 freestyle race footage is courtesy of swimswam partner Universal Sports Network.
Swimswam / Braden Keith coverage of the 800 freestyle at the 2013 FINA World Championships:
This was not the two-man race between Sun Yang and Ryan Cochrane that we expected. In fact, it was a four man race between those two and the two Americans, Michael McBroom and Connor Jaeger.
Ultimately, though, Sun was leading the pack the entire way, and nobody could make a lasting-move on any prolonged basis against Sun’s ultra-efficient stroke.
The only swimmer who at any point got close to passing Sun was McBroom (somewhat surprisingly him and not Jaeger). as he pulled within half-a-second around the 500 meter mark.
McBroom was in trouble early, as he was 8th after 150 meters and was in danger of losing contact. He really climbed back into the race though, and won silver as a part of his first ever International Team. He also broke the American Record of 7:45.63 that Larsen Jensen had held since 2005.
Cochrane outswam Jaeger on the last 50 to get bronze in 7:43.70, and Jaeger wound up 4th in 7:44.26, also under the old American Record. For Cochrane, that was the first Canadian swimming medal of these Championships.
After that tight grouping at the top, the results began to spread out quite a big. Australia’s Jordan Harrison had a much better swim than in the 400 to finish 5th in 7:47.38.
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri was 6th in 7:50.29, followed by Pal Joensen of the Faroe Islands (7:52.57), and Tunisia’s Ous Mellouli (7:52.79).
