The middle-distance runner was murdered at home after a violent quarrel with her husband. Last September she set the new world record for 10 kilometres on the road and at the Tokyo Olympics she was close to bronze.
She died at the age of 25, stabbed to death in her home in Kenya. The news of Agnes Jebet Tirop’s disappearance shocked the athletics world. The young champion was found lifeless by the police, alerted by some neighbours, who said they heard the woman arguing with her husband. The latter is the main suspect in the murder.
Domestic femicinide
Tirop’s husband, who was also the coach of the middle distance runner, was the first suspect. It seems that he himself somehow confessed to killing his wife, with a phone call to family members. “We have lost a jewel, one of the fastest growing athletics giants on the international scene,” said the Kenyan Athletics Federation in a statement.
And indeed Tirop was indeed a talent. Just in September she set the new world record for 10 kilometers on the road, stopping the clock at 30’01 ”. A few weeks earlier, at the Tokyo Olympics, she had touched the podium at 5,000 metres, finishing fourth. In addition, she boasted two bronze medals on the 10 thousand flat metres at the World Championships, won in London in 2017 and in Doha in 2019. She trained in Iten, in the Rift Valley, a region that gave birth to many running champions.
Agnes Jebet Tirop’s agent is former blue Gianni Demadonna, who was briefly heard by Corriere della Sera for a comment: “A huge tragedy, of which we have only partial news. I know that she and her husband had a fight a couple of months ago and Agnes had moved to train at the federal center in Iten. What could have really happened I don’t know, I know she was a huge talent ».
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