Kenyan athlete Agnes Tirop, a two-time world medalist in 10,000 meters and 4th at the Tokyo Olympics in 5,000 meters, was stabbed to death, Kenyan sports officials said.
The 25-year-old Tirop, a rising star in his country’s athletics, had just broken the world record for 10 kilometers in an all-female race a month ago with a time of 30 minutes and 1 second in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
The athlete won the world bronze in 10,000 m in 2017 and 2019, and had become a world cross country champion in 2015.
The Kenyan was found dead, stabbed in the abdomen, at her home at the Iten altitude training center in western Kenya.
Kenya lost a diamond. She was one of the fastest progressing athletes on the international scene, thanks to her outstanding performances on the track, ”the Kenya Athletics Federation deplored in a statement.
“We continue working to elucidate the circumstances of his death,” the note added.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also paid tribute to the champion: “It is disturbing, extremely sad to lose an athlete so promising and so young that, at the age of 25, she had already brought glory to our country for her successes on the track.” .
“Her death is even more difficult to fit in because Agnes, a Kenyan heroine, has been the victim of a cowardly and selfish criminal act,” he lamented in a statement. AFP (HN)