One of the most enthralling events at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne was the women’s marathon. With a mile to go, the Kenyan Hellen Cherono Koskei challenged the defending champion, Kerryn McCann, whose exploits as an international runner, while being a mother, had inspired many fellow Australians.

Both runners surged repeatedly in an attempt to break the other, only for the rival to respond almost immediately. As the pair swept into the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the 85,000 crowd, who had been watching the televised duel on large screens, rose to their feet to applaud. Koskei and McCann remained locked together for much of their circuit of the track, only for the Australian, over the last 200 metres, to produce an unanswerable sprint, and, to the biggest applause of the Games, win by two seconds.

That was the 38-year-old McCann’s last race. A year later, while pregnant with her third child, she was found to have breast cancer. Initially it was believed that she had recovered, but the disease reappeared in her liver.

McCann had an early interest in athletics, winning the New South Wales primary school cross-country championship in 1979. However, she then gave up the sport for almost five years before recapturing her zeal for running, concentrating on the marathon. This was an unusual event because teenagers generally prefer shorter distances before moving up to longer races with age. However, she first completed the distance at the age of 17 and, two years later, was came third in the Australian championships. She did not scorn shorter races and in 1988 won both the Australian mile and the marathon titles.

For the next 18 years, she was frequently a member of the Australian team, while getting married to Greg McCann, an international surfer, in 1991 and having two children. She was tenth in the 1994 Commonwealth marathon and also ran in the Olympics in 1996, 2000, when she was 11th, and also in Athens, a year after giving birth to her second child. She twice completed the London Marathon, with a highest placing of fifth in 2000 when she recorded a lifetime best of 2hr 25min 59 sec, and was first in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002.

The following year, while six months pregnant — the baby was subsequently born six weeks early — McCann discovered a lump on her chest. She admitted that she had noticed the condition early in her pregnancy but had not notified her doctor. The cancer seemed to have been successfully treated, but the secondary cancer was found this year.

Her battle with the illness was followed with rapt concern across Australia. Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, said: “For mothers across Australia, Kerryn was their athlete. They cheered her every stride, celebrated her victories and struggled with her through her brave battle against cancer.”

She is survived by her husband, two sons and a daughter.

Kerryn McCann (née Hindmarsh), athlete, was born on May 2, 1967. She died on December 8, 2008, aged 41