Cheptegei, who participated in the marathon at the last Paris 2024 Olympic Games, had been in the Moi University and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, western Kenya, since last Sunday.

Unfortunately, we lost her after all her organs failed last night, Dr. Owen Menach, acting director of the medical facility, said, as quoted by local media.

The Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) also confirmed the death of the 33-year-old athlete.

Tragically, she was a victim of domestic violence. As a Federation, we condemn such acts and call for justice. May her soul rest in peace, said the UAF on its social network account X.

For his part, the president of the Uganda Olympic Committee, Donald Rukare, denounced in a message on X “a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. We strongly condemn violence against women, he added.

The runner was attacked in front of her daughters, aged 9 and 11, in the Kenyan county of Trans Nzoia (west), and when she arrived at the hospital she had burns on 80 percent of her body.

The aggressor, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, also suffered severe burns to 30 percent of his body and is in the same hospital in Eldoret.

Over the past few years athletics in Kenya has been marked by similar cases, as in April 2022 the body of Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Mutua was found and her partner is suspected of killing her.

Earlier, in October 2021, 25-year-old middle-distance runner Agnes Tirop, double world bronze medalist in the 10,000 meters and fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the 5,000, was found stabbed to death, a fact blamed on her husband Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich, pending trial.

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