Mourning for Olympic participant after brutal attack

The murder of Ugandan Olympian and long-distance runner Rebecca Cheptegei has shocked her friends and family – and the East African athletics community.

For her fellow Ugandan athlete James Kirwa, who was Cheptegei’s occasional training partner, it was her generosity that distinguished her above all else.

Speaking to the BBC a few hours after she died from the effects of arson, he remembered the 33-year-old as an experienced athlete who was friendly to her teammates during running training.

“She was a very personable person and was always very helpful and even helped all of us financially. She brought me training shoes when she came back from the Olympics (in Paris),” he said.

The mother of two children took part in the marathon in the French capital and finished 44th with a time of 2 hours, 32 minutes and 14 seconds.

Compared to other runners in the region, she achieved modest success.

But you don’t have to win medals to earn money – and yet she was able to contribute to her family’s support with the income from her racing participation.

At the age of 19, she represented Uganda for the first time in an U20 race at the 2010 World Cross Country Championships.

Over time, she moved on to longer road races and was successful later in her career.

Her most notable victory was the uphill and downhill race at the 2022 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

She made her marathon debut in 2021 and the following year set a personal best of two hours 22 minutes and 47 seconds, making her the second fastest Ugandan woman of all time.

For much of her running career, she was also a member of the Ugandan Army, reaching the rank of corporal.

Athletes in East Africa often join their country’s army because of the financial support they receive – and because they can train on the track rather than serving in the field.

Not much is known about the circumstances under which Cheptegei joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, but she was a member of the country’s athletics club and represented her country on the track at the 2011 Military World Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Kirwa said she has been competing internationally for 14 years and he considers her an older sister – someone he turns to for support.

“When I started, I almost gave up because it was very difficult, but she told me I had to persevere,” he said.

Cheptegei died in the early hours of Thursday morning from severe burns. Her ex-boyfriend had poured petrol on her and set her on fire in front of her house in northwest Kenya on Sunday.

The region borders her home in Uganda and is close to Kenya’s elite athletics training centers, which was also the reason she lived there.

Agnes Cheptegei, the athlete’s mother, was visibly distressed and could only give her daughter a brief word of praise, which she described as kind-hearted, in front of the Kenyan hospital where she had been treated.

Her sister Violet burst into tears and said, “I’m in pain, but we’ll leave that to God.”

Cheptegei had just returned from church when she was attacked – and her two young daughters are said to have witnessed the whole thing and tried to intervene.

Ugandan athlete Immaculate Chemutai, who visited Cheptegai in hospital along with others like Kirwa, said she had hoped her friend would survive as she had been feeling better by Wednesday evening “and her breathing had somehow calmed down”.

“In the morning I got the call and the doctor told us we had lost her. It’s really sad. Rebecca was so good to us. She’s very sweet… a good person,” she told the BBC.

“She loves her family so much, especially the girls.

“And sometimes she supports us when we need a loan or something like that. We can ask for it and she can give it to us.”

Her father Joseph Cheptegei confirmed this when he said: “We have lost our breadwinner.”

He added that he is now worried about the education of the two girls as they will have to manage without the support of their mother.

The impact of her death is felt not only by her immediate family and friends.

For some, the incident fits into a broader pattern of violence against women in the region, where elite female athletes are not protected by their status.

“I can say that we are still in shock and it hurts us, especially as athletes. And what is happening now in Kenya is yet another attack on an athlete… so we are not happy,” said Kenyan runner Milcah Chemos Cheywa.

In 2021, world record holder Agnes Tirop was stabbed to death and six months later Damaris Mutua was strangled. Their partners have been identified by authorities as the main suspects in both cases.

“We call on the public, sports associations and the government to work together to take meaningful steps to protect women and girls and ensure that more lives are not lost,” said Tirop’s Angels, a group formed after Tirop’s killing.

Sebastian Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, said his organization would work with local groups to find out how female athletes could be better protected “from abuse of all kinds.”

He mourned the loss of an athlete who, in his opinion, “still had a lot to give.”

For Kirwa, Cheptegei’s death represents a deep personal loss and he said he had cancelled his participation in the Nairobi City Marathon on Sunday because he was so upset and “not in a good mental state”.