Agnes Tirop's husband arrested as he tried to flee the country

The police on Thursday evening arrested the Emmanuel Rotich, the husband of record-breaking runner Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in a killing that has shocked Kenya and the world of athletics.

Rotich was nabbed in Mombasa over the death of the 25-year-old double world championships medalist and Olympian, who has been hailed as a rising star cut short in her prime.

According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Rotich had rammed his getaway vehicle into a lorry at Athi River, along Mombasa road, as he desperately escaped their dragnet.

The suspect is currently being grilled by detectives at Changamwe police station.

Tributes have been pouring in for the late Tirop from fellow athletes.

"She was an amazing young girl who was really working hard to be one of the top athletes in the world," Julius Yego, Kenya's former athletics captain said.

"She wanted to be the best and it was only a few weeks ago that she broke the world record for the 10km. Her successful career was still being crafted but unfortunately, someone decided the whole story cannot be written."

During her career, Tirop had success as both a junior - winning 5,000m bronze at world championships in 2012 and 2014 - and as a senior, winning the World Cross Country championships in 2015.

At the World Athletics Championships in 2017 and 2019, she won bronze in the 10,000m before finishing 0.75 seconds outside the medal places at the Tokyo Games two months ago.

Last month, she set a new world record of 30 minutes and one second, in Germany, for the 10km road race.

On Thursday, Athletics Kenya suspended all athletics competition for two weeks as a mark of respect for Tirop.

On Wednesday, both the president of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, and his counterpart at the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, spoke about the loss of Tirop.

Former double Olympic champion Coe described her as "one of the world's best female distance runners over the past six years".

"Athletics has lost one of its brightest young stars in the most tragic circumstances," he added. "This is a terrible blow to the entire athletics community, but especially to her family, her friends and Athletics Kenya. I send them all our most heartfelt condolences."

Bach hailed Tirop as an inspiration in a post on Twitter.