The Ugandan athlete Benjamin Kiplagat, who represented his country during nearly two decades of racing in which he specialized in the 3,000 meters steeplechase, was found dead early this Sunday in western Kenya, after being stabbed, reported the Kenyan police

“We are still investigating the incident to determine what really happened, but what we can confirm is that the man found dead is an international athlete named Benjamin Kiplagat,” the police commander of Moiben subcounty, in the county of Moiben, told local media today. Uasin Gishu (west), Stephen Okal.

The neighbors informed the Police that a vehicle had been in an accident, which arrived at the scene around 05:00 in the morning local time (02:00 GMT), according to the agent.

Inside the car, they found a body that had been stabbed in the chest and had a deep cut on the neck, Okal said.

The vehicle was on the road that connects the city of Eldoret, the county capital, and the town of Iten, where Kiplagat, 34, had been training, Kenyan media reported. Many runners historically grew up in that area and, in fact, athletes from all over the region train in Iten.

Kiplagat won the silver medal in the 3,000 meters hurdles at the XII World Junior Athletics Championships held in Poland in 2008 and won bronze at the XVIII African Athletics Championships in 2012 in Benin, in addition to representing Uganda in several Games. Olympics and other competitions.

World Athletics, the governing body of athletics worldwide, was “shocked and saddened” by Kiplagat’s death and sent condolences to his family, friends and colleagues through the social network X (formerly Twitter).

This news came two years after the murder in October 2021 at the age of 25 of the Kenyan athlete Agnes Jebet Tirop, women’s 10-kilometer road record holder and 5,000-meter specialist.

The Kenyan Police found Tirop’s lifeless body on October 13 of that year after being stabbed inside her house in Iten, events in which the main suspect is her husband Ibrahim Rotich.

Rotich, who was accused of murder and pleaded not guilty, was released on bail last November after two years in preventive detention and awaiting the start of the trial.

Tirop’s murder put the spotlight on the multiple documented cases of sexist violence against Kenyan athletes.