Ugandan runner Rebecca Cheptegei: Olympian mourned after vicious attack

Over time she transitioned to longer road races, achieving success later in her career.

Her most notable victory came in the up-and-downhill mountain race at the 2022 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

She made her marathon debut in 2021 and recorded a personal best of two hours 22 minutes and 47 seconds the following year, making her the second-fastest Ugandan woman of all time.

For much of her running career she was also a member of the Ugandan army, achieving the rank of corporal.

Athletes in East Africa often join their country’s army for the financial backing it allows them – and they get to train on the track instead of serving in the field.

Not much is known about the circumstances of how Cheptegei joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, but she was a member of its athletics club and represented her country on the track at the World Military Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2011.

Because of her 14 years of international competition, Kirwa said he looked up to her as an older sister – someone he turned to for support.

“When I first started, I almost gave up because it was very difficult, but she told me you must solider on,” he said.

The region borders her home area in Uganda and is close to Kenya’s elite athletics training centres, which was why she lived there.

Clearly distressed, speaking outside the Kenyan hospital where she had been treated, the athlete’s mother Agnes Cheptegei, was only able to pay a brief tribute to her daughter, describing her as kind-hearted.

Her sister, Violet, broke down as she said: “I’m in pain but we leave it to God.”

Cheptegei had just returned from church when she was attacked – and her two young daughters are reported to have to have witnessed it all and tried to intervene.

Ugandan athlete Immaculate Chemutai, who had been visiting Cheptegai at the hospital with others like Kirwa, said she had hoped her friend might survive as she had improved by Wednesday evening “and the breathing was somehow settled”.

“In the morning I received the phone call and the doctor told us that we’ve lost her. It’s really sad. Rebecca, she has been so good to us. She is very lovely… a good person,” she told the BBC.

“She likes her family so much, especially the girls.

“And she sometimes supports us if we need some loan or something like that we can request it and she can give.”