By THE OBSERVER UG
Uganda’s 3000m steeplechase champion Benjamin Kiplangat has been killed in Eldoret, Kenya.
President of the Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) Dominic Otuchet said that Kiplangat who had just withdrawn money from the bank, was attacked and stabbed in the chest at around 9 pm on Saturday while heading to his brother’s home in Iten, Eldoret city.
The assailants made off with an unspecified amount of money. His body was found lying on the driver’s seat.
“This was murder, but we do not know the motive for now,” Stephen Okal, a local police commander said.
Kiplagat, a long-distance runner who specialized in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, represented Uganda in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympics.
Kiplangat began by competing in the 10,000m during the 2004 World Junior Championships and made his international debut at the 2006 World Cross Country Championships, having qualified by finishing 6th in the Ugandan Junior Cross Country Championships.
At the World Junior Championships, he set a new national record of 8:35.77, which he then lowered to 8:34.14 in the final, and finished 6th.
In 2008, he finished 4th in the World Cross Country Championships. In the same year, he lowered the Uganda record to 8:16.06 and then 8:14.29 before finishing second in the World Junior Championships.
In the 2009 season, despite being disrupted by sickness, he managed to further lower the Ugandan national record to 8:12.98. In 2010, he again lowered the Ugandan record to 8:03.81. He finished 4th at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
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