Agnes Jebet Tirop, the current 10,000KM world record holder, was found stabbed to death at her home in Iten.
The 25-year old runner who won bronze medals at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships, was found by police on Wednesday morning after being reported missing by her father. The Kenyan runner was found dead in her room, with a knife wound on her neck.
Police are treating her husband as a suspect.
Tom Makori, the head of police confirmed that Tirop’s husband was a suspect after going missing. His car was still parked outside the home but had its windscreen and windows smashed - reports suggest locals did this after learning of his suspected actions.
Makori said, “When [police] got in the house, they found Tirop on the bed and there was a pool of blood on the floor,” he said. “They saw she had been stabbed in the neck, which led us to believe it was a knife wound, and we believe that is what caused her death.
“Her husband is still at large, and preliminary investigations tell us her husband is a suspect because he cannot be found. Police are trying to find her husband so he can explain what happened to Tirop.”
We are this afternoon distraught to learn about the untimely death of World 10,000m bronze medalist Agnes Jebet Tirop. pic.twitter.com/eJ02x4YRR2
— Athletics Kenya (@athletics_kenya) October 13, 2021
Just last month, Tirop smashed the women’s 10k world record. The 25-year-old, two-time bronze world champion medallist over 5000m, set the new world record time of 30:01 at the Road to Records event hosted in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
The old record of 30:29, held by Asmae Leghzaoui of Morocco, had stood since 2002.
Finishing the weekend on a high 🎉🥳
Agnes Jebet Tirop 🇰🇪 smashes the women’s 10k world record (for a women-only race) in a time of 30:01 at the #adizero Road to Records event!
Kongole 👏👏#TeamKenya#YouAreTheReason pic.twitter.com/zv4LtoUNF2— TeamKenya (@OlympicsKe) September 12, 2021
Tirop, finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympic Games in the 5000M. She finished just being Gudaf Tsegay with a season's best of 14:39.62. Tirop was just 10 days away from her 26th birthday before her passing.
She rose to prominence in 2012 when she finished runner-up at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships. Tirop’s decorated CV also includes a World Cross Country title in 2015, during which she made history as the second youngest medallist at that level. At the age of 19, she went on to become the youngest winner of the World Cross Country Championship since Zola Budd in 1985.
