SYDNEY, Dec 8: Australian dual Commonwealth Games marathon gold medallist Kerryn McCann has died from cancer at the age of 41, reports said on Monday.

McCann passed away at her home near Wollongong, south of here, late Sunday surrounded by her family, media reports said, citing the Breast Cancer Network Australia.

McCann, one of Australia’s most successful long-distance runners, won Commonwealth gold medals in the marathon at Melbourne in 2006 and Manchester in 2002.

She said last year that she had beaten breast cancer after it was detected during her third pregnancy and she underwent a lengthy course of chemo-therapy after the birth of son, Cooper.

“The surgeon was confident he got it all and he was right. It’s fantastic news,” McCann told a magazine in October 2007.

But in September her husband, Greg, said his wife was undergoing a “few problems.” Reports said she was stricken by a secondary cancer in her liver.

McCann provided one of the most memorable moments of the Melbourne Games, duelling with Kenyan Hellen Cherono in the last three kilometres (two miles) as they approached the finish line at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

She was lifted by a roaring capacity home crowd in the stadium and pulled away over the closing 300m to defend the title she claimed in Manchester.

She is survived by her husband and their three children.

—AFP