The cheers of the throng rang out for Catherina McKiernan all the way up the Mall yesterday morning as the Cavan woman confirmed her ranking as one of the finest long distance runners in the world by winning the London marathon.

With Buckingham Palace forming an impressive backdrop, McKiernan spread her arms wide in triumph after crossing the line in two hours 26 minutes and 26 seconds, some 28 seconds ahead of Scotland's Liz McColgan. Joyce Chepchumba of Kenya, the defending champion, was third.

Within minutes of finishing, she received a telephone call from the President, Mrs McAleese, and other congratulatory messages from the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern and John Bruton, the leader of the opposition, soon followed.

Her first visit to one of the glamour events on the marathon circuit, may well have yielded earnings of around £100,000, belated but deserved reward for an imposing talent which has never been adequately rewarded.

Quantifying the respect which this success, following on her debut win in Berlin in September, will have generated among her peers, is more difficult. Suffice to say that after just two marathons, her place among the aristocracy of long distance running is now secure.

On a difficult day for running with a freshening wind billowing around the course and the threat of rain never far removed, she grew from an uncertain start to dominate her opposition over the last five of the 26 miles and justify the odds of 4 to 7 which bookmakers were asking before the off.

Like most of the other prime contenders, McKiernan was a long way off the pace after reaching the half way point in one hour 13 minutes and 55 seconds and was still 90 seconds down on the Mexican, Adrana Fernandez at 16 miles. Even for the most confident, situations like that verge on the critical but the response when it came was exhilarating.

With no support emanating from the athletes around her, she struck out with mountainous optimism to reign in those in the leading group, until only Fernandez and the Romanian, Lidia Simon who finished third in last year's race, remained to be picked off.

Simon's bewildered expression as McKiernan, on a different stride pattern, swept past, amounted to surrender and when Fernandez also receded quickly at the end of a long, brave run, the only thing which could beat McKiernan was her own body.

In the event, it would present her with her biggest problems. She was hit by severe stomach pains some six miles from the finish and from that to the end, the grimace on her face would testify to the strain of it all.

Earlier McKiernan was so relaxed that she could scarcely believe it. "Most of the cheers were for Liz but I was so comfortable that I kept glancing at the crowd, looking for a familiar face. I thought to myself - `My runs out in Malahide on Sunday mornings, are a lot harder than this'.

"Pretty early in the race, somewhere around eight miles, Liz turned to me and said that there were some good runners out ahead of us and we were allowing the gap to grow too big. At that point, I didn't even know how many she was talking about - I certainly couldn't see any of them on the road.

"She was the experienced runner and I felt that she would make the first move to catch them. Nothing had happened, however, by the 16 mile mark and while I didn't exactly panic, I knew it was decision time and I had to try and catch them.

"It wasn't until a couple of miles from the finish that I recognised a familiar face in the crowd - my brother's - and it encouraged me. I was beginning to suffer a bit towards the end but I kept looking at the clock and reminding myself - `only 20 more minutes running, only 15, only 10 . . . And then, it was over".

McKiernan's win was witnessed by her parents and for her mother, Mary, it was a novel experience. Never before had she watched her daughter compete in a big race but after following the early part on television at a hotel, she joined the rest of the family along the course.

"She's not the best spectator in the world - God knows how she got through the two and a half hours - but at the end she hugged me," she said.

Inevitably, there will now be speculation about an early attempt on the world record of two hours 20 minutes 47 seconds which the Kenyan, Tegla Loroupe established in Rotterdam only eight days ago. But McKiernan insists that the venue and, more pertinently, the timing, are decisions for her coach, Joe Doonan.

"I have always believed and so has she, that she is capable of setting a world record in the marathon but a lot of factors have to be taken into account," he said.

When somebody had the temerity to ask him if he had taken any precautions to avoid her getting stomach problems, he responded light-heartedly: "`Are you trying to put me in the . . .

And before he finished the sentence, McKiernan to much applause, interjected: "No, not that word, please".

The men's race was won with a late surge by the world champion, Anton Abel of Spain who caught the courageous Moroccan El Mouauzi Abdelkhder in the last 20 yards before going on to miss out fractionally, on the course record with a time of two hours seven minutes 57 seconds.

Two other members of Joe Doonan's entourage, Noel Berklely and Tom McGrath, together with Padraic McKinney of Civil Service Harriers, finished in the top 50 on a day when a staggering total of more than 30,000 runners reported to the start line.

"They won't be as happy this evening as Catherina but it's never a bad day's work when you send three runners to Cheltenham and come home with a winner," remarked Doonan.