Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died at a Kenyan hospital where she was being treated after 80% of her body was burned in an attack by her partner. She was 33.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died at a Kenyan hospital where she was being treated after 80% of her body was burned in an attack by her partner, a hospital official confirmed Thursday. She was 33.
Owen Menach, a spokesperson at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret city, said the long-distance runner died early Thursday, the morning after her organs failed. She had been fully sedated on admission.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, told journalists at the hospital that he had lost a daughter who was “very supportive” and said he hoped to get justice.
“As it is now, the criminal who harmed my daughter is a murderer and I am yet to see what the security officials are doing,” the father said. “He is still free and might even flee.”
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