Kenyan Olympic star Agnes Tirop has been found dead in her home with apparent stab wounds.
25-year-old Tirop represented Kenya in the 5,000m women’s finals at the recent Tokyo Olympics in Japan. She also made history by taking 28 seconds off the long-standing, women-only world record for 10km at the Adizero Road To Records event in Germany.
Tirop finished in a time of 30:01 breaking the previous record of 30:29 which had been set by Moroccan Asmae Leghzaoui in 2002.
At the 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Tirop became the second-youngest ever gold medalist in the women’s race after Zola Budd.
According to local media, she was stabbed in the abdomen. Multiple reports point to the deceased husband as the prime suspect.
Athletics Kenya said the country had “lost a jewel who was one of the fastest-rising athletics giants on the international stage, thanks to her eye-catching performances.”
Iten in western Kenya where Agnes was found dead, is renowned as a training base for distance runners.
