Paris sport web site to be named after Ugandan runner who was burned alive

A Paris sports site has been renamed after Ugandan marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei after she was burned alive by her partner.

On Thursday, the athlete succumbed to horrendous injuries sustained after she was doused in petrol and set alight in her home.

The 33-year-old suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body in Sunday’s brutal attack that was allegedly carried out by her ex-boyfriend, according to medical officials.

She was rushed to the intensive care unit at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, in the hopes doctors could stabilise her. But yesterday the facility’s acting director Dr Owen Menach confirmed Cheptegei had died.

Now Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced that a sports site in the capital has been renamed after the runner, while paying tribute to the Ugandan athlete, Le Monde reports.

She said: ‘Paris will not forget her. 

‘We will dedicate a sports site to her so that her memory and her history remain among us and contribute to carrying the message of equality, which is a message carried by the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

‘She dazzled us here in Paris. 

‘We saw her. Her beauty, her strength, her freedom, and it was probably her beauty, her strength and her freedom that were intolerable for the person who committed this murder.’ 

Cheptegei competed in the marathon at the Olympics last month, finishing in 44th place.

Kenyan police confirmed the runner was attacked at her house in western Trans Nzoia County, close to the Ugandan border, where she had recently relocated to be closer to superior Kenyan training facilities.

Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom said her former partner Dickson Ndiema had bought a can of petrol, poured it on her and set her ablaze during a disagreement on Sunday.

Police discovered a five-litre jerry can, a bag, and a burned phone at the scene of the incident, according to Kenyan newspaper The Nation.

Dr Menach told Kenyan press: ‘Unfortunately, we lost her after all her organs failed.’

The president of the Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) Donald Rukare said in a post on X: ‘We have learnt of the sad passing on of our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei… following a vicious attack by her boyfriend.

‘This was a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will continue to endure,’ he added.

A press release from the UOC bearing Rukare’s signature later urged law enforcement agencies ‘to take swift and decisive action to bring the perpetrator to justice’. 

President of World Athletics Sebastian Coe said: ‘Our sport has lost a talented athlete in the most tragic circumstances.

‘Rebecca was an incredibly versatile runner who still had a lot to give on the roads, mountains and cross-country tracks.’ 

Rebecca’s father Joseph Cheptegei, speaking earlier this week from hospital alongside his other daughter Evalyne Chelagat, claimed that the two were fighting over her land at Endebes in Trans Nzoia shortly before the alleged attack occurred.

‘They were just friends and I wonder why he wanted to take away things belonging to my daughter,’ Cheptegei Snr told The Star, revealing also that his daughter’s two children are fathered by a different man living in Uganda.

He went on to claim that Cheptegei and Ndiema — who he alleges have been separated for a long time — are involved in a case being investigated by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Kenya.

According to Cheptegei Snr and Police Commander Kosiom, the ex-boyfriend sneaked into his daughter’s home to stage the attack.

According to Menach, the alleged ex-boyfriend attacker has also been admitted to the same hospital with 30 per cent burns.