Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei hospitalised after being set on fire | Olympics News

Rebecca Cheptegie, who ran in final month’s Olympic marathon, has burns masking 75 p.c of her physique after a brutal assault by her boyfriend, police allege.

A Ugandan Olympic runner has been hospitalised in Kenya after being set on fireplace by her companion, in line with police.

Rebecca Cheptegie, who competed final month within the Paris Olympic Video games, suffered burns to three-quarters of her physique when her companion poured petrol on her and set her ablaze, police reported late on Monday.

The assault passed off on Sunday afternoon at Cheptegie’s residence in Kenya’s western Trans Nzoia County. The 33-year-old athlete is now in crucial situation in a hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.

Her Kenyan companion and alleged assailant, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, was additionally injured by the flames, in line with police, who mentioned he broke into Cheptegie’s residence whereas she was at church.

Cheptegie’s dad and mom, who’re reportedly on their option to see her from Uganda, mentioned their daughter purchased a house and land within the space to make the most of its coaching amenities.

Cheptegie, who positioned forty fourth within the girls’s marathon on the 2024 Olympics, just isn’t the primary high-profile athlete to make headlines because the sufferer of home assault in Kenya.

In 2021, record-breaking Kenyan runner Agnes Tirop was discovered stabbed to demise in her residence. Tirop’s estranged husband Emmanuel Ibrahim Rotich, who denies involvement, is now being tried for her homicide.

Tirop’s household and fellow Kenyan athletes launched a basis in her honour to fight gender-based violence – Tirop’s Angels – which just lately opened a centre in Kenya’s western city of Iten.