On Your Marks

Freeman gearing up for return at Commonwealth Games

Australia's Cathy Freeman, the sporting and cultural heroine of the Sydney Games, says she'll run a leg of the 4 x 400-meter relay at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, later this month. The 400-meter gold medalist in Sydney, Freeman didn't compete for nearly a year and a half after the Olympics. Recently she has been looking after her ailing husband, Nike executive Sandy Bodecker, who is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments for a cancerous tumor in his throat....

Legally blind U.S. Olympian Maria Runyan, who placed eighth in the 1,500 meters in Sydney, will make her debut in the marathon on Nov. 3 in New York. Runyan, who needs a magnifying glass to read her watch, will closely follow the blue course line in front of her and will have people stationed along the route to shout out her split times. She says she still plans to compete on the track at the Athens Olympics....

Surgeons recently removed a benign tumor from the hip of Austria's Stephanie Graf, the silver medalist at 800 meters in Sydney. Graf, who fainted after learning of the tumor, plans to begin rehab workouts in a pool sometime next week....

Jamaican-born sprinter Merlene Ottey, who has lived and trained in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana since 1998 and was granted citizenship in May by her adopted country, likely will miss the European Championships next month because of surgery on her left knee. At 42 Ottey has won 14 world and seven Olympic medals. Her silver in the 4 x 100-meter relay at Sydney made her the oldest woman to have won an Olympic track medal....

Sydney Paralympic gold medalist Marlon Shirley of Olympia, Wash., set a world 100-meter record for amputees on Monday, running an 11.08 at the International Paralympic World Athletics Championships in Lille, France. Shirley, 24, whose left leg was amputated below the knee when he was in high school, hopes to become the first leg amputee to break 11 seconds.