The start of 1998 did not bode well for Turland. While on her way to compete at the 1998 IAAF World Cross Country Championships she was hit by a motorcycle in Rome and injured. Despite her leg being in plaster for a month, she managed to return to action a few months later. The peak of her career came at the 1998 Commonwealth Games held in September in Kuala Lumpur. She was the oldest ever picked for the Australian athletics team at the event. Turland competed in the marathon and took victory with a run of 2:41:24 hours – winning her first international medal at the age of 38. She led an Australian 1–2 finish, as Lisa Dick was runner-up some 20 seconds behind. This made her the second Australian to win the title, after Lisa Martin who won the first two titles over the distance. Turland was given "The Don" at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Awards for her performance – the highest honour given by the organisation. The Nagano Marathon was her first marathon of 1999 and she ran the second fastest time of her career (2:36:26 hours) to finish fifth at the race and earned selection for the 1999 World Championships in Athletics. That July she equalled her half marathon personal best at the Townsville Running Festival. At the World Championships she could not match her previous performances and was among the first to drop out of the marathon race, soon after crossing the halfway mark.