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Home  » Sports » PIX: Rebecca Cheptegei buried with full military honours

PIX: Rebecca Cheptegei buried with full military honours

September 14, 2024 17:17 IST
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Soldiers from Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) handle the flag-draped coffin of the slain Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptege

IMAGE: Soldiers from Uganda People's Defence Forces handle the flag-draped coffin of slain Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei in Bukwo District, Uganda, on Saturday. Photograph: Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters

Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who died after allegedly being doused in petrol and set alight by her former partner, was buried on Saturday with full military honours.

Cheptegei returned to her home in the highlands of western Kenya, an area popular with international runners for its high altitude training facilities, after coming 44th in the marathon at the Paris Olympics on August 11. It would be her final race.

Three weeks later her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, allegedly attacked Cheptegei as she returned from church with her two daughters and younger sister in the village of Kinyoro, Kenya police and her family said.

Her father Joseph Cheptegei told Reuters that his daughter had approached police at least three times to file complaints against Marangach, most recently on Aug. 30, two days before the alleged attack by her former partner.

Family members mourn and react next to the coffin of the slain Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei

IMAGE: Family members mourn and react next to the coffin of the slain Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei at the Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital (MTRH) funeral home, in Eldoret, Kenya. Photograph: Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters

She suffered burns to 80% of her body and succumbed to her injuries four days later.

"I don't think I am going to make it," she told her father while being treated in hospital, he said.

"If I die, just bury me at home in Uganda."

Cheptegei's tragic death sparked anger over the high levels of violence against women in Kenya, particularly in the athletics community, with the marathoner becoming the third elite runner to allegedly die at the hands of a romantic partner since 2021.

Agnes Cheptegei mourns next to the coffin of her daughter and Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei

IMAGE: Agnes Cheptegei mourns next to the coffin of her daughter Rebecca Cheptegei. Photograph: Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters

One in three Kenyan girls or women aged 15-49 have suffered physical violence, according to government data from 2022.

Rights groups say female athletes in Kenya are at a high risk of exploitation and violence by men drawn to their prize money, which far exceeds local incomes.

 

Cheptegei's sporting successes include winning the 2021 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Thailand, and a year later earning first place in the Padova Marathon in Italy and setting a national record for the marathon.

Born in eastern Uganda in 1991, she met Marangach during a training visit to Kenya, later moving to the country to pursue her dream of becoming an elite runner.

Agnes Cheptegei mourns next to the coffin of her daughter and Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei

IMAGE: Rebecca Cheptegei's mother Agnes. Photograph: Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters

Marangach died a few days after Cheptegei, from burns allegedly sustained during the attack, dividing opinion among the local running community.

"Justice really would have been for him to sit in jail and think about what he had done," said marathoner Viola Cheptoo, co-founder of Tirop's Angels, a support group for athletes facing domestic violence in Kenya.

The cortege of slain Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei leaves the Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital (MTRH) funeral home, in Eldoret, Kenya

IMAGE: The cortege of slain Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei leaves the Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital (MTRH) funeral home, in Eldoret, Kenya. Photograph: Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters

The circumstances of Cheptegei's death shocked the world, but her name may yet inspire future athletes, with the French capital planning to name a sports facility in her honour.

"She dazzled us here in Paris. We saw her. Her beauty, her strength, her freedom," the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo told reporters. "Paris will not forget her."

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Source: REUTERS
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