Freeman returns home to comfort sick husband

Cathy Freeman, who won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in England earlier this week, rushed home to Australia on Saturday to comfort her husband, who has throat cancer.

The 29-year-old Aboriginal athlete forgot Sandy Bodecker's serious illness for a few seconds on Wednesday to help Australia claim the women's 4x400 metres relay title in Manchester.

"I'm happy to walk away with the gold medal, totally unexpected,' Freeman told reporters at Melbourne airport. "I'm going straight home now. What do you think any wife would do?

"I think he is pretty happy to have his wife home. I phoned him every day. All my loved ones are really happy for me, very proud of me and the team."

Freeman, whose preparations for Manchester were disrupted by her husband's illness and by a thigh injury, only qualified for the relay and not the individual event at the Games.

"It's nice to know I can still run a bit," said Freeman, who added that she was not 100 percent fit for the Games.

"Lady fortune was unfortunate for the Jamaicans (the pre-race favourites who dropped the baton) and fortunate for Australia."

Freeman said she was keen to run at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. "My competitive juices have been absolutely fired up. They are not at boiling point but they're bubbling," she said.

"I will try and maintain my fitness and if anything build on it," she said.

Freeman lit the Olympic flame before winning the 400 metres on the most exciting night of the 2000 Games in Sydney.