The husband of an Olympic runner found fatally stabbed in her Kenya home has been arrested for her murder.

Na quarta-feira, two-time World Championships bronze medalist runner Agnes Tirop was found dead in her home in Iten, a town in western Kenya. She had been stabbed to death, de acordo com Olympic officials.

O dia seguinte, Kenya authorities announced they had arrested the distance runner’s husband, Ibrahim Rotich.

“The prime suspect in the gruesome murder of 25-year-old world 5,000m record holder Agnes Tirop, has been arrested,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations-Kenya tweeted. “Ibrahim Rotich, who was in a relationship with the athlete, was arrested moments ago in Changamwe, Mombasa county, as he tried to flee to a neighboring country to evade justice.”

Investigators had launched a manhunt for him after family members reported receiving a troubling phone call from him crying and begging for God’s forgiveness, de acordo com para a Associated Press. Authorities believe the couple may have had a fight before the athlete’s death.

Tirop was a rising star athlete in the sports community, gaining fame in 2015 quando, no 19 anos, she became the second-youngest person to win the world-cross country title.

Em um statement released Wednesday, Athletics Kenya said, “Kenya has lost a jewel who was one of the fastest-rising athletics giants on the international stage thanks to her eye-catching performances on the track.”

Este Verão, she represented Kenya at the Tokyo Olympics in the 5,000-meter race finishing fourth. Last month in Germany, Tirop broke the world record in the women’s-only 10-kilometer road race.

“It is unsettling, utterly unfortunate and very sad that we’ve lost a young and promising athlete,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta disse em um comunicado. “It is even more painful that Agnes, a Kenyan hero by all measures, painfully lost her young life through a criminal act perpetuated by selfish and cowardly people.”

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