NAIROBI: Kenyan Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru died in a fall from a balcony after a domestic dispute involving his wife and another woman, police said Monday. One police official said Wanjiru committed suicide, while another said he jumped to stop his wife from leaving the house after she discovered him with another woman. The 24-year-old runner died late Sunday after jumping from a balcony at his home in the town of Nyahururu, in the Rift Valley, said John Mbijiwe, the police chief in Kenya's Central Province. “The fact of the matter is that Wanjiru committed suicide,” national police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said. Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere also said initial reports indicated Wanjiru killed himself, though a local official offered a different account. “Wanjiru came home with another woman friend at around 11:30 P.M. and then when his wife came home and found them she inquired who the lady was,” area police chief Jasper Ombati said. “They got into an argument. His wife locked them in the bedroom and ran off. “He then jumped from the bedroom balcony. He is not here to tell us what he thinking when he jumped. We do not suspect foul play. In our estimation we think he wanted to stop his wife from leaving the compound.” Ethiopian distance running great Haile Gebrselassie, a two-time Olympic 10,000-meter champion and world record-holder in the marathon, said on his Twitter feed that he was “totally shocked” by the news. “My thoughts are with his family and all his friends and colleagues,” Gebrselassie said. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Wanjiru became the first Kenyan to win a gold medal in the marathon, finishing in an Olympic-record 2 hours, 6 minutes, 32 seconds. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Wanjiru was “steadily developing into our country's running phenomenon.” He offered condolences to family, friends, Kenya and the entire world athletics community, calling the death “a big blow to our dreams.” Olympic 5,000 and 10,000-meter champion Kenenisa Bekele said he looked up to Wanjiru as a great athlete. Wanjiru had a history of domestic problems. Last December, he was charged with wounding his security guard with a rifle and threatening to kill his wife and maid. The runner denied all charges and was released on bail. Jos Hermens, the manager of Gebrselassie and Bekele and one of the most respected long-distance experts in the field, said Wanjiru saw too much success too early in his career. “It is incredibly sad. An Olympic champion at 21, he was poised to become the world-record holder in the marathon. He could not deal with all the luxury. It all went too fast, too much money,” Hermens said. “You could not say anything bad about him. He just could not deal with it all. He was a lion of a man, and he departed us in much the same way.”
