Rebecca Cheptegie, who ran final month’s Olympic marathon, suffered burns to 75 p.c of her physique after she was brutally attacked by her boyfriend, police mentioned.
A Ugandan Olympian has been hospitalized in Kenya after being set on hearth by his companion, police mentioned.
Rebecca Cheptegie, who was competing within the Paris Olympics final month, was doused with gasoline and set on hearth by her companion, leaving three-quarters of her physique burned, police reported late Monday.
The assault came about on Sunday afternoon at Chepteji’s dwelling in Turnzoa County, western Kenya. The 33-year-old athlete is at the moment in important situation at a hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.
Her Kenyan companion and alleged attacker Dickson Ndiema Marangach, who was additionally injured within the blaze, mentioned he broke in whereas Cheputegui was at church, in line with police Cheputegui’s dwelling.
Cheputegui’s dad and mom, who’re reportedly visiting her from Uganda, mentioned their daughter purchased a home and land within the space to benefit from coaching services there.
Cheputegui, who completed forty fourth within the ladies’s marathon on the 2024 Olympics, shouldn’t be the primary high-profile athlete to make headlines for being a sufferer of home violence in Kenya.
In 2021, record-breaking Kenyan runner Agnes Tirop was discovered stabbed to loss of life in her dwelling. Tirop’s estranged husband, Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich, has denied involvement and is at the moment on trial for Tirop’s homicide.
Tirop’s household and fellow Kenyan athletes have established a basis in her identify, the Tirop Angels Basis, which just lately opened a middle within the western Kenyan city of Iten to fight gender-based discrimination. Violence.
