Cathy Freeman, unhappy with her technique in Monday's world 400 metres final, did not realise at first she had won. "Technically, my race wasn't great and I was not quite sure I was first," the Australian confessed yesterday.

The first Aboriginal to win a world title, Freeman, who took two months off last year to visit schools in Australia, said she was planning to do so again, this time to meet children in the Australian bush.

"I'd like to go the bush," she said. "They (the Aborigines) have never had a world champion. Perhaps the kids would like to see me."