Athletics

Olympic runner from Uganda dies after petrol attack by boyfriend

Rebecca Cheptegei (33) was severely burned in Kenya, sustaining burns to 80 per cent of her body

Rebecca Cheptegei was 44th in the marathon at the Paris Olympics. Photograph: AP
Thu Sept 05 2024 - 08:22

A Ugandan long-distance runner who competed at the Paris Olympics this summer has died after an attack by her boyfriend, the head of the Ugandan National Olympic Committee has said.

Rebecca Cheptegei (33) was severely burned in Kenya after a man who was in a relationship with her poured petrol on her and set her on fire Sunday, according to the local authorities.

She was rushed to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in the city of Eldoret, Kenya, after sustaining burns to 80 per cent of her body, according to Dr Owen Menach, who is on staff at the hospital. She subsequently died from her injuries.

She was attacked by a man, identified as Dickson Ndiema, with whom she was said to be in a relationship, according to Jeremiah Ole Kosiom, commander of the Trans Nzoia County Police in Kitale, Kenya. No arrests have been made so far, the police said.

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Ndiema secretly entered Cheptegei’s home in Trans-Nzoia County with a jerrycan of petrol, Kosiom said, and he poured petrol on her and set her on fire. The resulting fire also burned Ndiema on 30 per cent of his body, Kosiom said.

The two were involved in a property dispute, leading Cheptegei to file a police report, according to her father, Joseph Cheptegei.

Rebecca Cheptegei, a professional athlete, ran the marathon at the Paris Olympics in August, where she placed 44th. She qualified for the Olympic marathon after reaching a personal best of 2 hours, 22 minutes and 47 seconds at the 2022 Abu Dhabi Marathon, according to the website for the Paris Games. In 2022, she won the Up and Downhill race at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Cheptegei is not the only female athlete who has been attacked in recent years, which has stirred a conversation about gender-based violence in several African nations. In 2021, Agnes Jebet Tirop, a Kenyan long-distance runner who competed in the Tokyo Olympics and broke world records, was found stabbed to death in her home. Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was charged with her murder, but pleaded not guilty. The next year, Damaris Muthee Mutua, a Kenya-born athlete who competed for Bahrain, was found strangled in Iten, Kenya.

Protests against the killings of women have broken out in Kenya after a grisly wave of femicides across nations including Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa, and called for officials to do more to stop gender-based violence. Women’s rights campaigners have linked the spike in killings in recent years to economic pressures and coronavirus lockdowns and say that authorities and leaders have not done enough to address the problem.

According to the United Nations, an estimated 20,000 gender-related killings of women were recorded in Africa in 2022, which has the highest rate of femicide in the world.

Another Ugandan runner, Benjamin Kiplagat, was fatally stabbed last year in Kenya on New Year’s Eve. Kiplagat (34) had competed in three Olympics, specialising in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. – Agencies