Paris Olympic marathoner Rebecca Cheptegei of Uganda was attacked in her home in Trans Nzoia County, Kenya on Sunday, BBC News reported. The runner’s Kenyan boyfriend reportedly doused her in gasoline from a jerry can during an argument before setting her on fire. Cheptegei sustained serious burns covering 75 per cent of her body and was taken to hospital, where she remains in critical condition.
Cheptegei’s attacker, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, was also injured by the flames and was hospitalized. The couple was reportedly overheard arguing outside the house just before the attack took place. The athlete and her assailant were rescued from the fire by neighbours, and both burn victims are receiving treatment at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret City, Kenya.
We regret to announce that our athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who competed at the Olympics has suffered severe injuries and is hospitalized at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret. This follows an incident involving her Kenyan boyfriend pouring petrol and setting fire on her pic.twitter.com/rgnWvgTpkb
— UGANDA ATHLETICS FEDERATION🇺🇬🇺🇬 UAF (@UgaAthletics2) September 3, 2024
Cheptegei, 33, returned to her home last month after a 44th-place finish in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics with a time of 2:32:14. She owns a house in the Trans Nzoia County area to take advantage of Kenya’s athletic facilities while training. The Ugandan runner won gold in the up and down mountain race at the 2022 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Thailand.
Tragically, this is not the first reported case of domestic assault against an elite athlete in East Africa–in 2021, Kenya’s two-time 10,000m world championship bronze medallist, Agnes Tirop, was found stabbed to death by her husband at her home in Iten, Kenya.
Tirop’s husband, Emmanuel Ibrahim Kipleting, was arrested after fleeing Iten by car, and was found hundreds of kilometres away. The alleged assailant is expected to be charged with Tirop’s murder, despite denying the accusations. Tirop was 25.
