ATHLETICS: Olympic champion Cathy Freeman yesterday put her career on the backburner as she revealed her husband is undergoing cancer treatment.
The 400 metres specialist will miss the Commonwealth Games, where she was expected to be one of the biggest draws, and has no firm plans to compete for the rest of the year.
Speaking from Melbourne, Freeman confirmed that husband Sandy Bodecker - an American sportswear executive - has a tumour in his throat.
"My husband has cancer," she said. "This has obviously come as a complete shock to both Alexander (Sandy) and myself. At the moment my highest priority is to remain by my husband's side."
Freeman has only recently returned to full-time athletics, having taken a year off following her exertions of 2000. She had rediscovered some of her sharpness, but was not running close enough to 50 seconds to win an automatic place in the Australia team. Eventually, a berth in the 4x400m relay saw her included, but that place will now be given up.
ATHLETICS: A notable milestone in Irish athletics was reached yesterday with the publication of the 21st Anniversary edition of Irish Runner Magazine. Since the first issue of June/July 1981, Irish Runner has covered, in detail, all the major achievements in the sport from Eamonn Coghlan's world title in 1983 to Sonia O'Sullivan's Olympic silver in 2000.
Both Coghlan and O'Sullivan were among those to offer words of congratulations in the latest issue, with O'Sullivan recalling how the magazine helped inspire her as junior, and hoping that her achievements can provide similar inspiration for the young athletes of today.
Many of those young athletes will be in action in Tullamore tomorrow at the Irish Schools' Track and Field Championships. A special feature of this year's event will be two Races of Champions (1,500 metres for men, and 800 metres for women) which will include several former schools' champions such as James Nolan, Colm McLean, Eoin Cummins, as well as Maria Lynch and Fiona Norwood.
