Paris Olympics marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei dies after being set on fire by boyfriend
Incident took place just weeks after Cheptegei had taken part in the marathon at the Paris Olympics
Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died after being set on fire by her boyfriend in Kenya, Uganda’s Olympic Committee chief said on Thursday.
“We have learnt of the sad passing on of our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei … following a vicious attack by her boyfriend,” Donald Rukare said in a post on X.
Cheptegei, 33, had sustained burns to 80 per cent of her body, the acting head of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in the Rift Valley city of Eldorect where she was being treated, had told reporters on Tuesday.
“All her organs failed last night,” a doctor at the facility told AFP Thursday.
Police had said a man named as Dickson Ndiema Marangach, identified as her partner, had allegedly doused Cheptegei with petrol and set her alight in an attack on Sunday at her home in Endebess in the Western county of Trans-Nzoia.
The incident took place just weeks after Cheptegei had taken part in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, where she placed 44th.
