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Olympics-Paris to call sports venue after dead Ugandan Olympian Cheptegei

The French capital will commemorate Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set on fire by her sweetheart, by naming a sports facility in her honour, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo revealed on Friday.

The marathon runner, who completed in the Paris Games last month died on Thursday, four days after she was splashed in gas and fired up by her boyfriend in Kenya, in the current attack on a female athlete in the country.

The 33-year-old, who completed 44th in her Olympic Games debut, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in Sunday's attack, Kenyan and Ugandan media reported.

She impressed us here in Paris. We saw her. Her beauty, her strength, her flexibility, and it was in all probability her beauty, strength and flexibility which were excruciating for the person who committed this murder, Hidalgo told reporters.

Paris will not forget her. We'll dedicate a sports location to her so that her memory and her story remains among us and helps bring the message of equality, which is a message brought by the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Cheptegei is the 3rd popular sportswoman to be eliminated in Kenya because October 2021. Kenyan Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen explained Cheptegei's death as a loss to the whole area.

This is a defining moment-- not just to grieve the loss of an exceptional Olympian, but to commit ourselves to developing a society that respects and secures the self-respect of every individual, Uganda's Athletes commission Chair Ganzi Semu Mugula stated on Friday.

(source: Reuters)