Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, B.C., earned his second medal of the world swimming championships on Sunday with a second-place finish in the men's 1,500-metre freestyle event.

Cochrane was in and out of the lead during his 14 minute, 41.38 second swim before finally finishing second behind Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia, who finished in 14:37.28.

China's Sun Yang took the bronze.

"It was unexpected by how, well, frankly how easy it was in the first half. That always feels good,'' said Cochrane, who won bronze in the 1,500 at the Beijing Olympics.

"In Beijing last year it was a pretty hard final to make, so I knew it was going to hurt going into the finals and it did," Cochrane said. 

The pain was worth it as Cochrane, who also won bronze in the 800 on Wednesday, secured a third swimming medal for the national team and the country's ninth medal overall at the event.

Vancouver's Annamay Pierse earned silver in the women's 200-metre breaststroke on Friday. Canada also won three diving medals, two in synchronized swimming and a silver in women's water polo.

Twenty-year-old Cochrane hadn't planned to swim the 800 coming into the meet but a seventh-place finish in the 400 prompted him to enter it as a way to take out his frustration.

He leaves Rome satisfied.

"There's always things you can work on and I would have loved to have gotten a gold but two medals for the team is great and I'm just happy I made everyone proud,'' he said. "It's great to end the weekend on a high.''

In the final race of the fastest competition in history, Michael Phelps won his fifth gold medal of the Rome world championships, swimming the butterfly leg of the men's 4X100-metre medley relay.

The American team finished first in three minutes, 27.28 seconds - smashing the existing world record of 3:29.34 set by the US team at the Beijing Olympic Games to set the 43rd world record at the Forco Italico.

Germany finished second in 3:28.64 and Australia was third in 3:29.16. Canada also set a national record in the men's 4x100 medley relay prelims, but did not make the final.

Pascal Wollach of Calgary, Mathieu Bois of Montreal, Joe Bartoch of London, Ont., and Brent Hayden of Vancouver finished ninth in 3:31.02, missing the final by 0.28 seconds. The previous Canadian record of 3:34.99 was set at last year's Olympic trials by a foursome that included Bois and Bartoch.

"We could have done better but it's still a step forward with the time,'' said Bois.

In the women's 400-metre individual medley final, Tanya Hunks, who set a Canadian record in the semis of the event earlier Sunday, was unable to repeat her brilliant performance. She swam to an eighth-place result after finishing last in the final.

Hunks' time of 4:38.15 was well off the 4:35.84 she swam in the morning, which eclipsed the 4:38.46 clocked by Joanne Malar of Hamilton at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg.

"I always looked up to (Malar) and admired her so breaking her record is pretty special for me,'' said Hunks.

"It didn't go quite as well as I wanted to tonight but I'm still relatively new to this event. I'm not satisfied with what I swam tonight, I would have liked to have gone faster.

"I think I held my nerves together really well until about two minutes before the race. But I just got in there and I tried my best. I can only move forward from this.''

Hungary's Katinka Hosszu won gold in a world championship record four minutes, 30.31 seconds. Zimbabwe's Kristy Coventry finished second while Stephanie Rice of Australia earned the bronze.

Earlier Sunday, both Pierse and Amanda Reason of Toronto competed in the women's 50-metre breaststroke final. Pierse finished fifth in 30.53 seconds, while Reason was seventh in 30.67.

Russian swimmer Yuliya Efimova came in at 30.09 - good enough to break the world record of 30.23 set by Reason less than a month ago.

With files from The Canadian Press