Olympic winner, two-time Chicago Marathon winner Wanjiru commits suicide
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Samuel Wanjiru. (Joel Ryan, ASSOCIATED PRESS / April 26, 2009)
By Philip Hersh, Tribune reporter 12:47 a.m. CDT, May 16, 2011
Kenyan marathoner Sammy Wanjiru, who won the 2008 Olympic gold medal and the last two Chicago Marathons, died after falling from a balcony at his home late Sunday in Nyahururu, Kenya.
"The fact of the matter is that Wanjiru committed suicide," national police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told the AP early on Monday.
Jaspher Ombati, the regional police chief for the area, told Reuters the police were investigating a possible love triangle that could have been behind the death of Wanjiru, Reuters reported. Ombati said the athlete's wife, Triza Njeri, came home to find Wanjiru in bed with another woman, locked the couple in the bedroom and ran outside. Wanjiru then leaped from the balcony.
News of Wanjiru's death first was reported in a story on runnersworld.com.
Chicago marathon director Carey Pinkowski said Sunday he had an email from Wanjiru's agent, Federico Rosa of Italy, with news of Wanjiru's death.
"I knew him as a warm, kind, fearless athlete," Pinkowski said. "I'm heartbroken.''
Wanjiru, 24, had been charged with attempted murder late last year after his wife claimed he threatened her with an assault rifle, according to Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper.
Wire service reports said Njeri dropped the charges against her husband in February.
At the 2008 Olympics, Wanjiru clocked 2 hours, 6 minutes, 32 seconds to break the Olympic record by nearly 3 minutes.
He was both the youngest marathon champion in Olympic history and, of great significance in his distance running-mad nation, the first Kenyan to win the marathon gold.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
