Gender-based violence among athletes is not news and recently, Ugandan Olympian became a victim of the vice when she was doused in petrol by her ex-partner Dickson Ndiema.
They allegedly had a dispute about a piece of land where lived and trained and she was coming back home from the church on the day she met her untimely death. This is not the only case of runners who have lost their lives to gender-based violence as also lost her life under the same circumstances.
Speaking to , Janeth Jepkosgei a retired Kenyan 800m sensation now turned coach revealed that the cases have become so many that women are now fearing for their lives. She noted that they have buried more ladies and cases will keep rising if society does not take action.
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“We don’t want to bury more ladies, but the same things keep happening. It’s no longer safe for any athlete, actually, especially when they’re starting a relationship. We feel scared as women,” Janeth Jepkosgei said.
She went down memory lane, remembering the late who was a force to be reckoned with in the world of long-distance running and road races. Tirop had just broken the women-only world 10km record weeks before she was stabbed to death.
Her husband and coach Ibrahim Rotich, the main suspect in her murder pleaded not guilty and the case has been ongoing for years.
Janeth Jepkosgei praised her and noted that she would have achieved a lot more than what she had already achieved if she were alive to this date.
“She was a pure talent. She could have been an Olympic champion. She could have done great things in the marathon,” she added.
On top of Agnes Tirop and , other women to have also lost their lives in similar circumstances are Damaris Muthee Mutua and Edith Muthoni.
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Mutua, a athlete was strangled in Iten in April 2022 with her boyfriend Eskinder Folie, named as the key suspect. Muthoni was murdered in October 2021 and her husband was charged with her murder in 2022 and the case is ongoing.