Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru, of Kenya, died overnight at the age of 24 after falling from the second floor of his home in the town of Nyahururu, police said yesterday.
“He fell from the balcony of his home after a row with his wife. We found him lying on the verandah with a broken skull,” a police officer in the region, Jasper Ombati, said.
Wanjiru made history at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when his winning time of 2 hours 6 minutes 32 seconds destroyed the 24-year-old Olympic record of 2:09:21 set in 1984 by Carlos Lopes of Portugal. It gave Kenya its first Olympic marathon gold.
After Beijing, Wanjiru won the London marathon in 2009 and Chicago in 2009 and 2010.
Wanjiru started his running career young, leaving for Japan in his mid-teens after winning a scholarship for Sendai High School. He became immensely popular in what was for a while his country of adoption.
Prior to Japan he trained with Robert Kioni, who remembers him as “so dedicated to athletics.”
Over the past several months however, Wanjiru, who leaves behind one daughter, appeared to have entered a downhill spiral, making headlines more for his marital problems and court appearances than for his sporting achievements.
His current coach, Claudio Berardelli, said: “Wanjiru had issues like any other person but he did not deserve to die the way he has died.”
Former coach Kioni said the athlete “became a totally different man after winning the gold medal in Beijing,” and cited Wanjiru’s “self-destructive problems, ranging from the excessive drinking to having affairs.”
“He associated with the wrong kind of people and even avoided all contact with me because he was told I was not a worthy coach,” Kioni said.
Wanjiru was involved in a serious car crash in January and was scheduled to re-appear before a Nyahururu court next Monday, accused of possession of an unlicensed fire-arm.
He had earlier been charged with threatening to kill his wife but she withdrew the charges, according to local television after a Valentine’s Day outing.
Police officers said Wanjiru came home after an evening in a local bar, accompanied by a woman. As the two entered the house they found Wanjiru’s wife Trizah Njeri Kamau who demanded to know why the woman was there, prompting a bitter argument.
In the ensuing melee, Wanjiru’s wife is reported to have locked the main door and headed to the police station to report the matter, prompting Wanjiru to jump off the balcony to try to stop her from going.
Nyahururu Police chief Jasper Ombati said the woman was detained briefly for questioning but is now free.
“We have released her because after interrogations, we have established that she is just an innocent woman,” he said.
Ombati said the investigation is continuing.
In the history of Olympic marathon running, Wanjiru at 21 ranks as the second-youngest winner ever, after Argentine Juan Carlos Zabala who won at the age of 20 in Los Angeles in 1932.