Freeman quits running for year

Australia's Olympic 400 metres gold medallist Cathy Freeman said on Thursday she was withdrawing from competition for the rest of the year to be with her husband, who has cancer.

"My husband has cancer. He has a massive tumour in the back of his mouth," Freeman told a news conference in Melbourne.

"He will be receiving treatment here in Melbourne and this means I will not be competing in Europe this year -- I am not competing this year at all," she said.

Freeman, who married U.S. sportswear executive Sandy Bodecker in 1999, was expected to be one of the main drawcards at the Manchester Commonwealth Games from July 25 to August 4.

After making her announcement, Freeman added that if she was "really fortunate" she might be able to run in the 4x400 metres relay for Australia at Manchester, but immediately cast doubt on such an event.

"Probably at this stage, really, it is highly unlikely that I will be on the track at all, but we will just have to wait and see. But I will keep training and stay fit and I plan to return to competition as soon as I can," Freeman said.

The 29-year-old missed this year's national championships because of a thigh injury, but said her leg was now "fine".

Freeman took 18 months off from international competition after the pressures of winning gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

The double world champion was one of Australia's stars of the Sydney Games, lighting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony.

Freeman had qualified for the 4x400 metres relay at the Commonwealth Games, but had yet to qualify for the individual event.

"My leg is fine. I'm just not prepared to leave my husband's side," Freeman said.

"I'm not interested in doing anything except seeing my husband get better right now."

Freeman said she was told on Friday of her husband's cancer and immediately decided to put her athletics career on hold.

"Yeah it sucks. It was a big shock. It's just going to take a lot of chemotherapy and radiation, for five to seven weeks here in Melbourne," Freeman said.

"People survive from these sorts of things. Anybody who becomes involved with Catherine Freeman has to be prepared to be really determined and my husband's going to be just fine."

Freeman said she would like to think she would have been tough to beat at Manchester and added she remained confident about her Olympic title defence in Athens in 2004.