Police in Kenya named the husband of long-distance runner Agnes Tirop as a “suspect” in her death after the 25-year-old was stabbed to death on Wednesday.
Keiyo North Sub County Police Commander Tom Makori told AFP that Tirop’s husband Emmanuel Rotich was the subject of a police hunt.
“The suspect had made a call to Tirop’s parents saying that he’d committed something wrong. So we believe he knows what happened,” said Makori.
Makori provided further details of Tirop’s death in an interview with affiliate, Nation TV.
“When police went to Tirop’s house, they found her in bed with blood under the bed and a lot of it on the floor,” Makori said.
“When police looked at the body, it looked like she had been stabbed on the neck with what we suspect to be a knife.”
In a tweet on Wednesday, Kenya’s National Police Service (NPS) said Tirop was the victim of a “heinous crime” and promised “speedy and comprehensive investigations.”
Tirop won bronze medals in the 10,000m at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships and finished 4th in the 5,000m at the Tokyo Games.
Last month, the 25-year-old 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.
Following the race, she said, “I’m so happy to have broken the world record. I felt the pace was good. The course was very good, too.”
At the 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Tirop became the second-youngest ever gold medalist in the women’s race after Zola Budd.
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.”
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe also paid tribute to one of the sport’s “brightest young stars.”
“World cross country champion at just 19, Agnes Jebet Tirop burst on to the global scene in 2015 and has been one of the world’s best female distance runners over the past six years,” he said in a statement.
“This is a terrible blow to the entire athletics community, but especially to her family, her friends and Athletics Kenya and I send them all our most heartfelt condolences.”