Kenya’s Sammy Wanjiru Fails to Qualify for High Jump

Kenyan Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru is dead, having jumped from a balcony after a domestic dispute with his wife and another woman. National police spokesmen are saying it was a “fact of the matter” suicide, but his agent says it wasn’t. Here’s a quick recap from a local official.

“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.”

The interesting thing about THAT (besides the fact that a Kenyan Olympic champion killed himself after being caught cheating on his wife, I mean) is that the balcony is being described as “13 to 19 feet high.” I’m not an Olympian, but I’m fairly certain I could survive a 13 foot drop. There’s an entire thing in The Dark Knight where Eric Roberts is all, “a fall from this height won’t kill me!” and Batman is counting on that and throws him off the fire escape. And that brings up further questions, such as “why did he think doing this would stop his wife from leaving the compound,” and, “how did his wife lock them in the bedroom, or maybe I don’t understand how Kenyan houses work.”

Regardless, a promising, gifted young athlete is dead for an absolutely ridiculous reason, and that’s a shame. People always say “it doesn’t make sense” when somebody dies, and for once, they’re really right.

[NESN]