The news that Ugandan distance runner Rebecca Cheptegei passed away tragically on Thursday, September 5, following an alleged act of domestic abuse, has shocked and devastated World Athletics. The 33-year-old has competed for her country in various cross-country, road, track, and mountain events throughout the previous 15 years. Her triumph in the up-and-down race at the 2022 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships is her most noteworthy accomplishment.
At the 2010 World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Cheptegei, a gifted adolescent, competed for Uganda and finished 15th individually. She also won bronze in the team competition. She participated in the senior race in the Punta Umbria event the next year and later that year, she represented Uganda in the track at the World Military Games. In 2013, she participated in her third World Cross Country Championship, and in 2014, she took part in the African Cross Country Championships.
She ran her first marathon in 2021 and, in her fourth race at the distance in 2022, set a new Ugandan record of 2:22:47. It was only six weeks prior to her triumph at the Chiang Mai World Mountain and Trail Running Championships. She placed 14th in the marathon in the Budapest World Championships the previous year. She made her Olympic debut in Paris, finishing 44th in the marathon in 2:32:14, after finishing just outside of the medals in the half marathon at the African Games earlier this year.
Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, remarked, “Our sport has lost a talented athlete in the most tragic and unthinkable circumstances.” “Rebecca was a highly adaptable runner with plenty left to give on cross-country, mountain, and road courses. “In addition to evaluating how our safeguarding policies might be improved to include abuse outside of the sport, and bringing together stakeholders from all areas of athletics to combine forces to protect our female athletes from abuse of all kinds,” the statement reads, “I have been in touch with our Council Members in Africa to see how we can help.”
