NYAHURURU, Kenya – Kenyan Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru plunged to his death from the first-floor balcony of his home after his wife found him in bed with another woman.
Regional police chief Jaspher Ombati said that Wanjiru’s wife, Triza Njeri, surprised the couple when she came home late on Sunday, locked them in the bedroom and ran outside.
“In a rage, Samuel Kamau Wanjiru jumped from the first floor of the house and he was badly injured,” Mr Ombati said. “When he was rushed to the hospital the doctors tried to resuscitate him but unfortunately he passed on.”
Wanjiru (24) won Kenya’s first men’s marathon gold in Beijing in 2008 and had been regarded as one of the greatest current talents in an east African country long renowned for its distance runners.
He also won the prestigious London and Chicago marathons, but his private life was troubled.
Ombati said Wanjiru returned home with the woman after a drinking spree. Nyahururu residents said Wanjiru had taken to heavy drinking of late and was stressed by personal problems.
Last December, Wanjiru was charged with threatening to kill Ms Njeri with an AK-47 assault rife – the accusation was later withdrawn as his wife said they were reconciled – and he crashed his car in January after swerving to avoid an oncoming truck.
Wanjiru was still due to appear in court later this month for the illegal possession of the weapon.
Video footage yesterday showed police looking at bloodstains on the ground below the balcony of Wanjiru’s house in Nyahururu, a town in the Rift Valley 150km northwest of the capital Nairobi.
Ms Njeri and Wanjiru’s female companion recorded statements at the police station in Nyahururu and were later released.
“Wanjiru’s death is not only a loss to his family and friends but to Kenya as a whole and the entire world athletics fraternity,” prime minister Raila Odinga said.
“As an athletics nation, we looked forward to a sterling performance in the Olympic Games in London next year. Mr Wanjiru was one of our sure bets for gold in the upcoming contest. His death is therefore a big blow to our dreams.”
Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, the world marathon record holder, said he was “totally shocked”.
Of course one wonders if we, as an athletics family, could have avoided this tragedy. My thoughts are with his family and all his friends and colleagues,” Gebrselassie said on his Twitter account.
Kenya’s vice-president Kalonzo Musyoka urged the country’s sports management institutions to embark on a programme to prepare sports stars to handle fame and fortune gracefully.
Wanjiru’s talent was spotted when he won a cross-country selection trial in Kenya and he moved to Japan in 2002 as a young man to attend high school.
The runner defied the heat of Beijing in 2008 to triumph in an Olympic record time of two hours, six minutes and 32 seconds at the games held in China.
Another Ethiopian, the Olympic and world 5,000 and 10,000 metres champion Kenenisa Bekele, said he had hoped to race against Wanjiru when he stepped up to the marathon. – (Reuters)