Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has tragically passed away a few days after her former boyfriend set her alight in petrol and set her on fire.
The 33-year-old marathon runner from Uganda who recently competed in the Paris Olympics, suffered extensive burns after an attack on Sunday.
The city of Paris said on Friday it would honour Cheptegei, who came 44th in her Olympic marathon debut in August, by naming a sports venue after her.
Tributes have poured in for the runner, who was Uganda’s women’s marathon record holder and also served in the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces, holding the rank of sergeant.
“Our sport has lost a talented athlete in the most tragic and unthinkable circumstances,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said. “Rebecca was an incredibly versatile runner who still had lots left to give on the roads, mountains and cross country trails.”
Coe said he was in discussions with members of World Athletics’ governing council “to assess how our safeguarding policies might be enhanced to include abuse outside of the sport, and bringing together stakeholders from all areas of athletics to combine forces to protect our female athletes to the best of our abilities from abuse of all kinds”.
Cheptegei’s death has thrown a spotlight on domestic violence and femicide in Kenya, where Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said it was a “stark reminder” that more must be done to combat gender-based violence.
According to a report by a local administrator, the athlete was in dispute over a piece of land with a partner she broke up with. 
Rebecca Cheptegei, hailing from a region just across the Ugandan border, had purchased a plot in Trans Nzoia county and constructed a house to be closer to Kenya’s renowned athletics training centers.
This tragic incident has highlighted the growing concern over the rising cases of violence against female athletes in Kenya, with Cheptegei being the third victim since October 2021.
Outside the hospital where Rebecca had been treated, her father, Joseph Cheptegei, spoke to journalists, urging the Kenyan government to ensure justice for his daughter.
“We have lost our breadwinner,” he lamented, expressing his worries about the future of her two children, aged 12 and 13, and how they would “proceed with their education.”