Olympic marathon champion Wanjiru dies

Tributes flowed in on Monday for Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru who died overnight from head injuries at the age of 24 after falling from the second floor of his home in Kenya's Rift Valley.

"I think the world has lost the greatest runner in living history," Wanjiru's agent Federico Rosa told CNN World Sport.

Dave Bedford, race director for the London marathon, a race Wanjiru won in 2009, said a tribute to the athlete he described as "the greatest marathon runner that we have ever seen in the world" is being planned.

"Like the rest of the world of athletics, and in particular marathon running, I am absolutely shocked to the core," he told the Daily Telegraph.

"Today we woke up to the sad news that Mr Samuel Wanjiru ... has died. Wanjiru's death is not only a loss to his family and friends but to Kenya as a whole and the entire world athletics fraternity," Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga 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.

"We looked forward to a sterling performance in the Olympic Games in London next year. Mr Wanjiru was one of our sure bets for gold. His death is therefore a big blow to our dreams," Odinga said. Fellow athletes expressed their shock.

Former two-time Olympic and multiple world champion Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia said on his twitter feed: "I am totally shocked of the news." Another Ethiopian hero, Kenenisa Bekele, said: "I looked up to him and saw him as a great marathon athlete."

AFP