Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei Dies After Being Set Ablaze By Boyfriend

Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei has succumbed to her injuries and passed away, just four days after being set on fire by her boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, Uganda’s Olympic Committee chief said on Thursday.

THE WHISTLER reported that Cheptegei’s boyfriend carried out the heinous act on August 29. The 26-year-old middle-distance runner was rushed to the hospital with severe burns and fought for her life before ultimately passing away on September 2.

“We have learnt of the sad passing on of our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei OLY following a vicious attack by her boyfriend,” Donald Rukare, head of Uganda’s Olympic committee, said in a post on X.

Cheptegei, 33, had sustained burns to 80 percent of her body, the acting head of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in the Rift Valley city of Eldorect where she was being treated, and had told reporters on Tuesday.

“All her organs failed last night,” a medic at the facility told AFP Thursday.

Kenyan media had reported that one of Cheptegei’s daughters witnessed the assault at her mother’s home.

“He kicked me while I tried to run to the rescue of my mother,” Kenya’s The Standard reported her as saying.

“I immediately cried out for help, attracting a neighbour who tried to extinguish the flames with water, but it was not possible,” said the girl, who has not been named.

Marangach was also wounded in the incident, sustaining 30 percent burns on his body.

Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei Dies After Being Set Ablaze By Boyfriend is first published on The Whistler Newspaper