Ugandan Olympic athlete set on fireplace by her boyfriend, police say – Nationwide

A Ugandan athlete residing in Kenya was attacked and set on fireplace by her boyfriend and is receiving remedy for burns on 75 per cent of her physique, police stated.

Rebecca Cheptegei, a distance runner who completed on the forty fourth place within the 2024 Paris Olympics, was attacked in her home within the western Trans Nzoia County.

Get breaking Nationwide information

For information impacting Canada and around the globe, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you after they occur.

Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom stated Monday that Cheptegei’s boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema, purchased a jerrycan of gasoline, poured it on her and set her ablaze throughout a disagreement Sunday.

Ndiema additionally sustained burn wounds, and the 2 are receiving specialised remedy on the Moi Instructing and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.

Cheptegei’s mother and father stated their daughter purchased land in Trans Nzoia to be close to the county’s many athletic coaching centres.

A report filed by the native chief states that the couple was heard combating over the land the place the home was constructed earlier than the hearth began.

In 2023, Ugandan Olympic runner and steeplechaser Benjamin Kiplagat was found dead with stab wounds. In 2022, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee was discovered lifeless with a postmortem report stating that she was strangled.