★ The Sports Examiner: Chronicling the key competitive, economic and political forces shaping elite sport and the Olympic Movement.★
★ To get the daily Sports Examiner Recap by e-mail: sign up here! ★
≡ SPOTLIGHT ≡
Ugandan women’s marathoner Rebecca Cheptegei was laid to rest on Saturday in a military ceremony on her father’s homestead in Bukwo, Uganda.
A gold medalist at the 2021 World Mountain & Trail Running Championships, she was the 44th-place finisher in the Paris Olympic Marathon on 11 August. She returned to her training base in western Kenya, and was attacked at her home on 1 September by her former partner, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, over a dispute over a piece of land Cheptegei had purchased in Kenya.
Marangach doused her with gasoline and set her on fire, burning himself in the process as well. Cheptegei was rushed to a local hospital and then transferred to a hospital in Eldoret with burns over 80% of her body; she passed away on 5 September, causing an outrage in a country already with a high rate of violence against women.
Marangach was also hospitalized, with burns over 30% of his body and died on 9 September.
The Cheptegei family received the body on Friday (13th), with dozens of activists against domestic violence accompanying at the morgue of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret. She was 33.
The Associated Press reported that Saturday’s burial in the Bukwo district, near the Kenyan border, was attended by several thousand mourners:
“Military officers played a prominent role in the funeral because Cheptegei held the rank of sergeant in Uganda’s army, said military spokesman Brig. Felix Kulayigye, adding that she deserved a ‘gun salute that befits her rank.’
Ajilong B. Modestar, the Bukwo resident district commissioner, said “As a nation, we are indeed in a black and dark moment. We condemn in the strongest terms the manner in which Rebecca died. … We should not continue battering women in this manner.”
Cheptegei leaves behind two children, from a different relationship, ages nine and 11.
A 2022 survey of Kenyan women in relationships or married showed 41% had experienced abuse by their current or most recent partner, with the Cheptegei death only the latest incident demonstrating the need for reform.
¶
★ Receive our exclusive, weekday TSX Recap by e-mail by clicking here.
★ Sign up a friend to receive the TSX Recap by clicking here.
★ Please consider a donation here to keep this site going.
For our updated, 547-event International Sports Calendar for the rest of 2024 and beyond, by date and by sport, click here!
