World athletics are shocked by the alleged femicide of an Olympic athlete, who holds the world record in the 10 kilometers: Kenyan Agnes Jebet Tirop, fourth in the 5,000 meters at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, was found dead at home, with several stab wounds in her abdomen, and the first hypotheses suggest that she was murdered by her husband.
Jebet Tirop, 25, was found murdered at her residence in Iten, in Elgeyo Marakwet county, according to Kenyan media. Later, the Athletics Federation of that country confirmed the death through a statement in which it stressed that the first investigations point to her husband, who apparently stabbed her several times and then fled the scene.
“We are still working to uncover more details about his death. Kenya lost a jewel. He was one of the great names in athletics who rose very quickly on the international stage, thanks to his eye-catching performances on the track,” Athletics Kenya said in its notification. .
According to the testimony of some neighbors disseminated by local media, discussions and fights between the couple were common, so speculation estimates that one of those situations led to the tragic scenario, with the femicide of Jebet Tirop consummated.
The Kenyan athlete was going through a great moment in her career, since last month in Herzogenaurach, Germany, she had broken the world record in the 10 kilometers, with a mark 29 seconds lower than the previous time, which belonged to the Moroccan Asmae Leghzaoui since 2002.
Tirop was bronze in the 10,000 meters at the 2017 World Cup in London, a podium that he repeated two years later at the Doha event. At the Tokyo Games she had finished fourth, while in 2015, at just 19 years old, she had won the gold medal at the World Cross Championship, held in Guiyang (China).
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