VALE KERRYN MCCANN

Athletics , Sunday, 7 December 2008

Dual Gold medallist, Kerryn McCann, has passed away overnight from breast cancer at her home near Wollongong.

That Kerryn McCann was not an outstanding junior athlete yet became a dual Commonwealth Games champion in her thirties, is but one of the many inspiring qualities she displayed during her fine athletics career.

That she did not give up in her fight for life, even in the face of an impossible struggle with breast cancer, was characteristic of her determination and courage within and beyond the sporting field in which she excelled.

Her second Commonwealth marathon gold medal, most remembered by her epic battle with Kenyan Hellen Cherono over the final 400 metres inside the Cricket Ground, was the inspirational moment of those Games for very many Australians.

For those who had known her previously her gritty fight to the line to win by that tiny margin of two seconds was no surprise. And for those for whom that day in March 2006 was their first acquaintance with the then mother of two, it was instant respect and admiration.

Of Australia’s 84 gold medals in Melbourne in 2006, Kerryn’s is unquestionably amongst the most often recalled. Her unassuming victory lap with son, Benton (then 9) won the hearts of a nation.

So much so that amongst all Australian success in all sports that year, it was Kerryn who was the recipient of ‘The Don’ Award presented by The Sport Australia Hall of Fame to an athlete who by achievement and example over the previous twelve months is considered to have had the capacity to most inspire the nation.

That citation says everything about Kerryn McCann and her performance in Melbourne. But in so many ways it was simply reflective of the person and her approach to life in general one who genuinely earned the respect and admiration of team mates, rivals, officials and fans alike.

The young Kerryn Hindmarsh loved athletics. She won a local community fun run at 11 years of age, defeating all the adult women in the field of 900. She made the front page of the local paper. A career had begun.

But it did not immediately blossom in the way that typifies so much other female teenage talent. There was success at state level but no national medals, until at 19 Kerryn bobbed up for third in the Australian marathon championship held on the streets of .

The celebration of 100 years of athletics in Australia, delivered a first national gold medal in the centenary one mile championship held in Sydney in January 1988, and was followed soon thereafter by Kerryn’s first major national team appearance in the World Cross Country Championships in Auckland.

The result, a 104th placing, was nothing special but a fierce determination to keep trying ensured that a top 20 placing was eventually forthcoming some 11 years later in Belfast, where Kerryn led the Australian women’s team to fourth, its then best ever team performance.

In between it was a hard, but always determined, battle. Opportunities for international representation came reasonably often, as did national medals but it was not until Kerryn was amongst the leaders when the group went passed the 5km point in the 2005 World Championships marathon in a record split time, that real progress was made.

As it happened the record split was misleading, the result of officials failing to ensure athletes ran an additional lap of the stadium before out onto the streets of Goteborg, Sweden. But the coming of age of Kerryn McCann as a world-class distance runner was not.

She finished fifteenth - enough to signal the emergence of an athlete not only of great willpower but also of talent. The successful partnership with coach, Chris Wardlaw, with whom she had linked up after her first Commonwealth Games appearance in Canada the year before, was developing well. Soon after they were joined in their small team by Nic Bideau, who provided guidance and race support.

A dream to run in the Olympics in 1996, delayed plans with husband Greg, to start their family but Benton’s arrival meant there was no second Commonwealth Games in 1998.

Like many other athletes who have returned to competition after maternity duties, Kerryn’s re-appearance on the running scene in 1999 was a successful one, winning the Zatopek 10000 metres and then setting a national best on record in Tokyo of 1:07.48, which to date no Australian woman has been able to better.

A tenacious eleventh in the Sydney Olympic marathon heralded a series of fine performances in international races, which included third in in 2001 when Catherine Ndereba set a world record for the marathon.

Just under a year later, the first of her two Commonwealth successes came in , at the head of an all-Australian victory dais. After the birth of daughter Josie in 2003, it was back to training for a tilt at a third Olympics in .

The was Kerryn’s fourteenth major team appearance for her country and came after ten Australian championship victories. What is perhaps little known is that she almost did not make it to the line. A disappointing run in the Tokyo Marathon in November 2005, almost prompted Kerryn to withdraw her availability. But she and the selectors held faith, and the rest is now Australian sporting folklore.

Kerryn’s passing late on Sunday night (7 December) came after a courageous fight with breast cancer, first diagnosed shortly before the birth of second son, Cooper. She is survived by Greg McCann, children Benton (now 11), Josie (5) and Cooper (15 months), parents Judy and John Hindmarsh, and sister (and fellow Australian marathon champion), Jenny Gillard. Their only brother, Darren was killed in a motor vehicle accident in 1988.

Commonwealth gold medalist Kerryn McCann dies from cancer at 41

Sydney Morning Herald, Arjun Ramachandran, December 8, 2008

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kerryn McCann died from cancer early today at the age of 41.

The champion marathon runner had secondary cancer in her liver since May. She revealed last year that she had breast cancer while pregnant with her third child.

Her manager, Nic Bideau, said McCann died early today, after she and her family recently decided to stop treatment because she had become too weak.

"I saw her last Thursday and Friday and she was pretty weak ... [but] she was more worried about her kids than about herself," he said.

McCann and her husband, Greg, had three children - Benton, 10, Josie, 4, and Cooper, 1.

Last year, surgeons removed a cancerous tumour from her breast.

But four months ago, she revealed she was being treated again, for secondary cancer in her liver.

Determined to fight

In October, McCann told she was determined to fight the disease.

"I'm fighting and I'm positive,'' she told New Idea. "Of course I'm going to fight - not least because of my beautiful and amazing family.

"If I don't succeed, I want the children simply to know how very much I love them.''

She told the magazine she had planned to record a video for each of her children. McCann also described the death of Jane McGrath as her "lowest point''.

"I lost a lot of hope and immediately feared the worst - I thought that was it.

"But my family and doctors have made sure I've recovered a lot of my positive attitude now. Other people have beaten this disease, and so can I.''

Cancelled trip

Two weeks ago, McCann had planned to dine with Bideau and other running friends as part of a visit to Melbourne to see a doctor, but cancelled the trip due to ill health, Bideau said.

"There were a lot of people who were really keen to see her, but when [she cancelled] I think that gave them the idea that she was ill."

Bideau again paid tribute to the "fantastic race" run by McCann to win the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and defend her title.

"She was really highly regarded, more than anyone in the running community - no one had one bad word to say about her," he said.

Bideau said McCann contacted him to encourage him to take on younger runners under his management.

"She really looked after people. She was a huge inspiration to so many runners, many who have already contacted me [with words of sorrow] today."

On Thursday, the Zatopek Classic - a major annual running event that has featured Australia's highest profile runners - will take place in Melbourne. McCann won the 10,000-metre race at the event in 1999.

"But I think on Thursday, people will be talking about Kerryn McCann rather than what's going on on the track," Bideau said.

McCann had also received support from Jane McGrath, who died in June.

McCann's family has asked for privacy and requested that flowers not be sent.

Donations

Instead, they welcome donations to the Breast Cancer Network Australia or the McGrath Foundation.

Neil Barnett, the president of McCann's local running club, Kembla Joggers, described her death as "a loss for society, not just the running community''.

"It's all happened so fast, we'll be numb for some time yet,'' he said.

"I think the thing that struck me most about Kerryn was she was an absolute champion in the sporting arena, but a bigger one off it.

Role model

"I've never met someone with so much humility and decency. If I could think of someone to be a role model for kids, whether as a runner or not, she'd be that person.'' McCann had been with the club since she was 10, and showed talent as a runner even at a young age, he said.

International success did not diminish her devotion for her local club.

"The kids loved her, they'd mass around her, and she loved it too.

"She came for a fundraiser we ran about four or five months ago ... and she gave them all a motivational talk.

"This was at a time when she was not 100 per cent herself, but she still found the time because we were raising money.''

McCann's success as a runner was because she was " a real fighter ... [who] didn't take herself too seriously'', he said.

Some of her running colleagues were too upset to speak publicly about her death today.

Running great Raelene Boyle tearful recounted how she had grown close to McCann and her family during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006.

"We had the best time and I'll hold those memories close,'' she said.

"Kerryn was a very strong person, very private, quiet - a good mother, loving wife, a really nice ordinary person who had an extraordinary talent to ... run .''

Recounting McCann's victory over Kenyan Hellen Cherono Koskei in Melbourne by just metres, Boyle described McCann as a "a very brave woman''.

Drowning in emotion

Days after the race, Boyle wrote how it had left her "drowning in emotion'', and listed McCann's win as one of a handful of sporting events that had truly moved her.

"For her family and friends and every Aussie that watched her in Melbourne ... we will be having a silent thought,'' she said today.

Athletics Australia president Rob Fildes paid tribute to McCann's distinguished career.

"On behalf of the entire athletics community, I would like to pass on my sincere condolences to the McCann family, after Kerryn lost her long battle with cancer at her home in Coledale earlier this morning,'' he said in a statement.

"Kerryn will fondly be remembered for being an extremely popular team member who represented her country on 14 occasions, across an athletics career that spanned 22 years.''