Two-time Commonwealth Games Marathon gold medalist Kerryn McCann, who earned her place in Australian sports history when she defended her Commonwealth title in front of a packed house at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds in 2006, succumbed to cancer last night. The popular athlete and mother of three was just 41 years-old.
Her death was confirmed by her long-time agent, Nic Bideau.
McCann was a versatile distance runner who recorded her best performances on the roads. A three-time Olympic marathoner (her best finish was 11th in Sydney in 2000), she was still the Australia record holder for the half-marathon at the time of her death (1:07:48). She was also the fourth-fastest Australian marathoner of all time, behind only Benita Johnson, Lisa Ondieki and Nicole Carroll. She consistently made good results at the big city marathons, finishing third in Chicago in 2001, fourth in Osaka in 2002, fifth in London in 2000, and sixth in New York City in 2002. In the New York race, she was contending in a pack of four with less than 10 km remaining, when she tangled with another athlete, falling hard to the pavement on her chest. She later said that it had been her best chance for a big city victory.
But McCann was best known for her dramatic 2006 Commonwealth Games victory in Melbourne. Thirty-eight years-old at the time, McCann was unperturbed by the slow early pace and various surges by minor athletes. She ran comfortably through half-way in 1:16:23 before putting in her own surge which cut the lead group from ten to just four, including Kenyan Helen Cherono.
"I spoke to my coach and my manager (Nic Bideau) beforehand and he said I wasn't allowed to do anything until halfway," McCann told Race Results Weekly that day. "I wanted to kick it along a bit just to see what would happen."
By 32 km, McCann had shed all of her rivals but Cherono. The young Kenyan remained glued to the Australian's heels, refusing to lead. The wait to get to the Cricket Grounds, where over 90,000 spectators were watching the race play out on a jumbo video display, was excruciating. As the crowd screamed madly, it came down to a sprint on the track, with McCann defeating Cherono by two seconds in 2:30:54. After the race she took a victory lap with her son, Benton, photos of which were plastered across all of Australia's newspapers the next day.
"I think it's probably the greatest victory I've ever had, the greatest race I've ever run," said McCann that day. "I've never had to sprint like that at the end of a marathon. It's something I'll cherish forever."
It would be McCann's last marathon. Early in 2007 she and husband Greg became pregnant with their third child, and in August, 2007, McCann was diagnosed with breast cancer. She delivered her baby, a boy named Cooper, six weeks early on September 5, so she could begin her treatments.
"I know the most important thing is to get better," she told Perth's Sunday Times newspaper in October, 2007. "But it's just hard, feeling robbed at this time."
Seemingly after beating breast cancer, McCann was diagnosed with liver cancer last May. She and husband Greg kept the news out of the media until last September when Bideau told the Canberra Times, "I knew quite a while ago she's been fighting it since May." She finally lost that fight last night.
McCann is survived by her husband, Greg, sons Benton and Cooper, and daughter, Josie.
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