a relationship. Id say Trump tried a little harder than Niall did.? With Nike exiting the golf club business and McIlroy a major endorser of the brand, Little Billy asked the Northern Irishman what kind of clubs he should get for Christmas if he wanted ones just like McIlroys next year.McIlroy deftly

BARCELONA, Spain -- Ryan Cochrane had to claw his way to Canadas first podium finish in the pool at the 2013 FINA World Championships. The Victoria native won his third straight medal in the mens 800-metre freestyle Wednesday, charging down American Connor Jaeger on the final 100 metres to win the bronze medal in seven minutes 43.70 seconds. The 24-year-old won silver in the event at the 2011 worlds in Shanghai, and bronze in 2009 in Rome. Chinas Sun Yang took the gold in 7:41.36. Cochrane, who came an agonizing fourth in the 400-metre freestyle Sunday, was edged by American Michael McBroom by 0.1 seconds for silver. "The touches arent my friend this meet," Cochrane said. "It was hard getting fourth place. Its a frustrating place to be but with a world championships anything can happen. Theres so many great competitors that in this 800 I think anybody had a chance at the podium. "To know I could claw my way back onto the podium is great and we have the 1,500 to look forward to after this." Randy Bennett, head coach of the national team and Cochranes coach at the Victoria Academy of Swimming, characterized the race as "interesting." "Five guys in it all the way and its not that normal in the distance freestyle," Bennett said. "Its usually a two- or three-horse race but it was interesting -- he could have been fifth. "Its great racing for him to get his hand on the wall in the third place position and be aware that he had to go in the last 100 as hard as he did, so well take the medal and run with it but you always want a little bit more." The medal is Canadas fifth overall at the championships, and second in swimming. Victorias Eric Hedlin won a silver medal in the 5-km open water race earlier in the two-week event, which also features water polo, diving, synchronized swimming and a new high diving discipline. Also Wednesday, American Missy Franklin held off a late challenge from Federica Pelligrini to win the 200-metre freestyle. The win came after Franklin pulled of the 50-metre backstroke, ending a possible bid for eight gold medals at a single major event. She also has gold medals here from the 4x100 free relay and the 100 backstroke. The 18-year-old entered eight events, giving her a chance to match Michael Phelps as the only swimmers to win that many events at a major championship. But, after a tough double on Tuesday and a lacklustre showing in the morning preliminaries, Franklin and her coach, Todd Schmitz, decided to scratch the 50 backstroke -- a non-Olympic event that she swims mainly for fun, though she did take bronze at the 2011 worlds in Shanghai. There was only a 20-minute break between the semifinals of the 50 back and the final of the 200 free, and the latter was much more important to Franklin. She just missed a medal in that event at the London Olympics, losing out for third by a hundredth of a second. "We decided that maybe the risk kind of outdid the rewards," Franklin said. "So we decided not to do it. It was fun to swim it this morning but Im really happy with the decision to scratch and just do this." Frances Camille Muffat went out hard, leading after the first lap and 0.75 under the world-record pace. But Franklin edged ahead at the midway point and held off hard-charging Federica Pelligrini of the Italy, the world-record holder, to win in 1 minute, 54.81 seconds. Pelligrini claimed silver, 0.33 behind the winner, while Muffat settled for the bronze. The worlds continue through Sunday. Cochrane is back in action in the 1,500-metre freestyle heats Saturday. He has back-to-back world championships silver medals in that event, along with the 2012 Olympic silver. "The field is getting faster and faster and I think one of the mistakes we made (in the 800) is playing into everybody elses race tactics," Cochrane said. "Seeing that the field was so even shows we were all trying hard but maybe not executing the race plans we wanted to. In the 1,500 you can have front-end speed, back-end speed, people who have different technical sides." Three other Canadians had evening swims Wednesday. Audrey Lacroix and Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Que. both competed in the womens 200-metre butterfly semifinals. Lacroix narrowly missed qualifying for the final and finished 10th. Savard finished 15th. Sinead Russell of Burlington, Ont., finished 14th in the 50-metre backstroke semifinals. Earlier in the day, Calgarys Joel Greenshields finished 38th in the 100-metre freestyle and Andrew Ford of Guelph, Ont., finished 23rd in the 200-metre individual medley.Shaquille ONeal Jersey . -- In one brief spurt, Brazil turned a close game into a rout and proved again it will be a strong World Cup favourite. Jonathon Simmons Jersey . A knee to the thigh might have stung him the most, but his sixth straight double-double made up for the brief burst of pain. http://www.cheapmagicjerseyschina.com/mario-hezonja-jersey/ . Jeff Green scored 13 points and Kris Humphries 12 for the Celtics, who nearly blew an 18-point, second-half lead. Sullingers 20-20 was the first by a Celtics player since Kevin Garnetts first game in Boston in 2007. Garnett was dealt -- along with Paul Pierce -- to Brooklyn during the off-season. Arron Afflalo Jersey . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. Magic Jerseys From China . The 31-year-old Spain midfielder hasnt played since Madrid lost in the Copa del Rey final to Atletico Madrid in May due to back and foot injuries.In a viral video released by the European Tour on Friday, world No. 2 Rory McIlroy answered questions from 9-year-old Little Billy on a wide assortment of topics that varied from his decision to skip the Olympics to what golf clubs he might use in 2017.McIlroy, who played along and was a good sport through it all, chuckled at nearly every question tossed his way, sometimes with an uncomfortable awkwardness that lent itself to the authenticity of the session. Some of the playful queries on serious topics included:? If youre so tough, how come youre so scared of a little mosquito? (This came in reference to McIlroy skipping the Rio Olympics in August in part because of the Zika virus scare that has been linked to birth defects in children.) McIlroy replied that he was looking forward to having kids someday and a few people used that excuse and I sort of jumped on the bandwagon.? Whos your favorite girrrrrl tennis player? (McIlroy was expecting to marry former world No. 1 tennis player Caroline Wozniacki before he broke off the engagement in 2014.) After struggling to find an answer, McIlroy conceded, Honestly, Billy, Ive stopped following womens tennis the last couple of years.??Showing a photo of some of McIlroys past hairstyles, Billy asked, What weeeere you thinking? (It was a phase and I should have listened to my dad, came McIlroys response.)? Little Billy told the four-time major champ that he wanted to interview Tiger Woods next. The 9-year-old asked whether McIlroy could put in a good word for him with Woods.Ill put in a good word for you, McIlroy said. Id love to see you interview Tiger. Id love to see that.The youngster followed up by asking whether he should ask Woods for career advice or chat-up (pickup) lines.Chat-up lines, McIlroy said. Hes been pretty successful in both areas, bbut I dont see why you couldnt ask him both questions.dddddddddddd??In possibly the first time a U.S. president-elect and a former One Direction singer were mentioned in the same sentence, Little Billy posed the question, Who tries the hardest to be your friend, Donald Trump or Niall Horan?They both love golf, McIlroy answered. I think thats a great thing. And because Im good at it, its nice to have a relationship. Id say Trump tried a little harder than Niall did.? With Nike exiting the golf club business and McIlroy a major endorser of the brand, Little Billy asked the Northern Irishman what kind of clubs he should get for Christmas if he wanted ones just like McIlroys next year.McIlroy deftly replied that Santa would know, stopping the kid in his tracks.So what was McIlroy expecting from the cub reporter?It was a lot of fun, McIlroy said Saturday. [I got a call] the week before and [was asked], how close to the bone can we go? And I said, look, I dont mind, you can go as close as you want. Wasnt quite expecting some of the questions that came up, but it was all in good fun.McIlroy, who shot 68 in Round 3 of the DP World Tour Championship, where the interview with Little Billy occurred, scrambled as best he could considering the circumstances.I definitely had to put my thinking hat on a couple of times and try to wiggle out a couple of them as best I could,?McIlroy said.The interview, which aired Friday, ended with Little Billy offering an early wedding gift to McIlroy, who is engaged to American Erica Stoll. When McIlroy opened the box full of socks, he looked at Little Billy with a bemused expression.Just in case you get cold feet again, the 9-year-old said. ' ' '