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DPA
Berlin
The two-time world championship bronze medallist Agnes Jebet Tirop has died aged 25 in an alleged murder, Athletics Kenya (AK) said on Wednesday, with police reportedly seeking her husband.
Tirop was found at home in Iten with stab wounds according to AK and local media reports subsequently confirmed by the police.
“When [police] got in the house, they found Tirop on the bed and there was a pool of blood on the floor,” Tom Makori, head of police for the area, was quoted by the BBC as saying.
“They saw she had been stabbed in the neck, which led us to believe it was a knife wound, and we believe that is what caused her death.
“Her husband is still at large, and preliminary investigations tell us her husband is a suspect because he cannot be found. Police are trying to find her husband so he can explain what happened to Tirop.” Tirop took world bronze over 10,000 metres in 2017 and 2019, and finished fourth in the 5,000m at the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer.
She also set the world record for the women’s only 10-kilometres earlier this year and was world cross country champion in 2015 when aged only 19.
“Kenya has lost a jewel who was one of the fastest-rising athletics giants on the international stage, thanks to her eye-catching performances on the track,” AK said.
The governing body World Athletics said Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta called her death “unsettling, utterly unfortunate and very sad.
“It is even more painful that Agnes, a Kenyan hero by all measures, painfully lost her young life through a criminal act perpetuated by selfish and cowardly people.”
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14/10/2021
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