- Rosannagh MacLennan scores Canada's first gold
- Victoria's Ryan Cochrane swims to silver medal
- Island's Gillian Carleton cycles to team bronze
The British press labelled it a Super Saturday of six gold medals for the rapturous host nation at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. But it was super in its own way for Island athletes as well, with Victoria swimmer Ryan Cochrane winning silver and Victoria cyclist Gillian Carleton bronze.
Canada also got its first gold medal of the Games, thanks to Toronto's Rosannagh MacLennan on trampoline. She delivered a knockout performance to finish with 57.305 points, ahead of Chinese favourites Huang Shanshan and He Wenna.
It took a commanding world-record performance in the pool by Sun Yang of China (14: 31.00) to beat Cochrane (personal best 14: 40.31) in the men's Olympic 1,500-metre freestyle final as the 23-year-old Claremont graduate improved one spot from his bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Sun survived a false start, usually an automatic disqualification. The explanation given was that the referee had ordered the swimmers to "stand up" and Sun misunderstood and jumped into the pool early.
Cochrane grimly held off defending Olympic champion Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia (14: 40.31), who settled for bronze.
"I showed I'm still progressing - to be faster than four years ago is fantastic," Cochrane said.
The 1,500 is the most grinding distance in Olympic pool swimming.
"When I was feeling good around the 750-metre mark, I knew it was time to go and test the waters every 100150 metres, and I still felt great," Cochrane said.
U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps was presented with a silver trophy Saturday as the most decorated Olympian. Phelps pushed his team in front to win the medley relay Saturday in the final swimming event of the London Games, after which he said he's retiring.
Meanwhile, it was only last summer when converted cycling road racer Carleton took to the track for the first time at the just reopened Juan de Fuca Commonwealth Games velodrome. She was still road shy after a car crash in Victoria in spring 2011. As she rehabilitated by riding at Juan de Fuca, she couldn't have remotely envisioned herself in London Saturday as an Olympic medallist.
Neither could the St. Margaret's grad have guessed it just last November, lying in a Kazakhstan hospital with a broken pelvis following a crash in a World Cup track race.
But Carleton recovered to win an Olympic medal in the women's track team pursuit event with 91原创 teammates Tara Whitten of Edmonton and Jasmin Glaesser of Coquitlam, as they edged Australia in the bronze-medal race.
"The last year has been such a whirlwind," said Carleton, by phone from London. "It still hasn't sunk in. The race was so close that I looked up frantically checking if we were third or fourth. We left it all out there on the track."
Britain added to its golden day by besting the U.S. in the final.
After the medal ceremonies, Sir Paul McCartney led the crowd in singing Hey Jude. It was all beyond Carleton's wildest dreams.
"I think I'll have a beer," she said. "It's been months."
Saturday did not start out well, however, with Victoria-based triathlete and 2011 world No. 1 Paula Findlay fading to 52nd in the women's triathlon.
