Sept. 4 (UPI) — Police say that Rebecca Cheptegei, a Ugandan marathon runner who just competed in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, was set on fire by her ex-boyfriend and is in serious condition.
Cheptegei, 33, is getting care for burns that cover 75% of her body. Her doctors say she is “fully sedated because of the extent of the burns.”
Sunday, after coming home from church with her two kids, the marathon runner was attacked at her home in western Kenya.
“They were heard arguing outside of their home in the small town of Endebess.” “The boyfriend was seen pouring something on the woman and then setting her on fire during the fight,” Jeremiah Ole Kosiom, the head of the local police force, told reporters.
“The man was also caught in the same fire and sustained serious burns,” he said.
Trans Nzoia county is close to Kenya’s sports training centers. A county official said the couple had been fighting over a piece of land Cheptegei bought to build her house.
Police said Dickson Ndiema Marangach, Cheptegei’s ex-boyfriend, put gasoline on her and was burned in the fire as well. The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret city is treating both of them.
“We are sorry to say that our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has been seriously hurt and is being treated at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.” This is because her Kenyan boyfriend doused her in gasoline and set her on fire, the Uganda Athletics Federation said in a post on X.
Rebecca Cheptegei, one of our athletes who participated in the Olympics, has been seriously hurt and is currently being treated at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret. This happened after her Kenyan boyfriend doused her picture in gasoline and set it on fire.Visit twitter.com/rgnWvgTpkb — Uganda Athletics Federation (@UgaAthletics2) September 3, 2024
Cheptegei came in 44th place in the marathon at the Olympics last month. Two years ago, she won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Cheptegei isn’t the only star in Kenya who has a partner after them.
Damaris Mutua, a Bahraini runner born in Kenya, was found dead in the town of Iten in the Rift Valley in 2022. He had been killed. A record-setting long-distance runner named Agnes Tirop was found cut to death in the same town a few months before.
Last year, someone stabbed and killed Benjamin Kiplagat, an Olympic runner and steeplechaser from Uganda.