Nairobi (AFP)
Kenyan athlete Agnes Tirop, two-time world medalist in 10,000m and 4th at the Tokyo Olympics in 5,000m, was stabbed to death, Kenyan sports officials said on Wednesday.
Tirop, 25, a rising star in athletics in his country, had just broken the world record for the 10 km a month ago in an all-female race in 30:01 in Herzogenaurach (Germany).
She won bronze at the 10,000m Worlds in 2017 and 2019, and became the cross country world champion in 2015.
She was found dead, stabbed in the abdomen, at her home in Iten, a famous high-altitude training center in western Kenya.
"Kenya lost a diamond who was one of the fastest growing athletes on the international stage thanks to her remarkable performances on the track," the Kenya Athletics Federation said in a statement.
"We continue to work to clarify the circumstances of his death," the statement said.
Tom Makori, police commander in the district of Keiyo (west), told AFP that Emmanuel Rotich, Tirop's husband, was wanted.
“He can tell us what happened,” Makori said. has passed."
President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta also paid tribute to the champion: "It is heartbreaking, extremely unhappy and sad to lose such a promising and young athlete who, at 25, had already brought glory to our country through her exploits on the track."
"Her death is all the more difficult to take as Agnes, the heroine of Kenya, was the victim of a cowardly and selfish criminal act," he laments in a statement.
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