Gang raids Nairobi home of world marathon champion Cathrine Ndereba

Nairobi, Kenya - A gang raided the Nairobi home of Kenya’s two-time world marathon champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist Catherine Ndereba and robbed her off household goods and cash.

 

Police said the gang also escaped with the Kenya Prisons uniforms that were in the Karen house at the time of the incident. She is still serving at the prisons as a warden.

 

Ndereba and her family were unhurt in the Monday night incident. Police said Ndereba was at home at the time of the attack.

“It was raining heavily when the gang raided. The marathoner was not wounded in the attack but she lost some goods from the house where she was with her family,” said police spokeswoman Gatiria Mboroki.

Mboroki said efforts by the police to trace the attackers were futile as it was raining heavily and that the attackers escaped on foot.

It is not clear how the gang managed to scale the heavily fortified home and later broke into the house where the family was resting.

Ndereba announced her retirement from competitive running last year.

She twice won the marathon at the World Championships in Athletics and won silver medals in the Olympics in 2004 and 2008.

She is also a four-time winner of the Boston Marathon. Ndereba broke the women's marathon world record in 2001

Known as "Catherine the Great,” Ndereba made her marathon debut in Boston in 1998. In 2000, she won Boston and Chicago. She set a world record of 2:18:47 in 2001 while winning her second Chicago title. She also won Boston in 2000, 2004, and 2005. Her two world titles came in 2003 and 2007. She won the silver medal in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic marathons.