October 13, (THEWILL) – Agnes Tirop, a Kenyan world record holder, has been discovered dead at her house in the western town of Iten, a town in the Elgeyo-Marakwet County of the Republic of Kenya. She was 25 years old.
Last month in Germany, the two-time World Athletics Championship bronze medalist, who placed fourth in the 5,000m final at the Tokyo Olympic Games, set the world record for a women’s only 10km road race.
In an official statement, the national athletics governing body said: “Athletics Kenya are this afternoon distraught to learn about the untimely death of World 10,000m bronze medallist Agnes Tirop.
“We are still working to unearth more details surrounding her demise. Kenya has lost a jewel who was one of the fastest-rising athletics giants on the international stage, thanks to her eye-catching performances on the track.”
Tirop finished narrowly outside the medal spots in the women’s 5,000m at the 2020 Olympic Games in August, trailing Ethiopia’s bronze medalist Gudaf Tsegay by 75 hundredths of a second.
Tirop, a bronze medalist in the 10,000m at both the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships, ran a time of 30 minutes and one second in Herzogenaurach, Germany, in September, shattering the existing 10km road race record set in 2002 by 28 seconds.
Tirop began her athletic career as a junior in 2011, collecting two bronze medals in the 5,000m at the global junior championships.
She won the senior World Cross Country Championships in China four years later, becoming the second-youngest medalist at that level, during a meteoric rise.
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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
