GLASGOW -- Swimmer Ryan Cochrane has Canada's first gold medal of the Commonwealth Games.

The Victoria native won the 400-metre freestyle event in three minutes 43.46 seconds, 0.63 seconds ahead of Australia's David McKeon. He broke his own Canadian record that he set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

England's James Guy was third in 3:44.58.

Cochrane won gold in the same event four years ago at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi to go with another gold in the 1,500 metres.

The 25-year-old won bronze in the 1,500-metre freestyle in Beijing and improved on that performance four years later with a silver in the same event at the London Games.

He also has six medals from the world championships.

Later Thursday, Canada's women's 4x100 freestyle team won bronze.

The team of Montreal's Victoria Poon, Alyson Ackman and Sandrine Mainville and Toronto's Michelle Williams finished in 3:40.00.

Australia won gold while England took silver.

Canada has three medals on the first day of the Games after Kirsten Sweetland won silver in triathlon.