Tirop's
Angels
She set a world record on the adidas campus and was killed thirty-one days later. This page is about her, and about the foundation her fellow runners built afterwards — whose name adidas put on the kit of its 2023 cycle.
Tirop's Angels is the Kenyan foundation that runners built after Agnes Tirop was killed at her home in Iten on 13 October 2021, aged 25 — and the name adidas carried on athlete kit in its 2023 cycle. The mint long sleeve in our archive is one of those garments.
This page reads her first: what she won, what she ran 31 days before she died, and what her fellow runners did afterwards. The kit comes last, which is the order the story happened in.
Part of our Brand Series — the wider adidas story is in The History of Adidas Pro Elite, and the season itself in the 2023 cycle deep-dive. Tirop's Angels runs its own work in Iten and publishes it on Instagram.
- What it is
- The Kenyan foundation runners built after Agnes Tirop was killed — and the name adidas put on its 2023 athlete kit
- Agnes Tirop
- 1995–2021. World cross-country champion 2015; world 10,000 m bronze 2017 and 2019; 4th, Tokyo 5000 m
- The record
- 30:01 for 10 km, Herzogenaurach, 12 September 2021 — women-only world record, ratified
- The gap
- 31 days between that record and her death, on 13 October 2021, aged 25
- The record today
- Passed to Agnes Ngetich, 29:27, 26 April 2025 — at the same race
- The foundation
- Founded 2021 in Iten, chaired by Viola Cheptoo; a centre for survivors open since April 2024
- The case
- Charged, pleaded not guilty, bailed 2023, at large since March 2025. No conviction; hearings resume 3 November 2026
- In our archive
- 1 athlete-issue piece carrying the Tirop's Angels name, inside the 2023 adidas cycle
Agnes Tirop, in Results
Agnes Jebet Tirop was born in Uasin Gishu County on 23 October 1995 and won the senior women's race at the World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang in 2015, at nineteen. She took bronze over 10,000 m at the world championships in London in 2017 and again in Doha in 2019, and finished fourth in the Olympic 5000 m final in Tokyo in 2021, in 14:39.62. Her bests when she died were 8:22.92 for 3000 m, 14:20.68 for 5000 m and 30:25.20 for 10,000 m, and all three were still coming down.
Kenya produces a great many very good distance runners and a small number who change what a race looks like. The people who trained beside her in Iten put her in the second group, and the last month of her life is the argument for it.
Thirty-One Days
On 12 September 2021, on a road circuit inside the adidas campus at Herzogenaurach, Tirop ran 10 km in 30:01. It took 28 seconds off the women-only world record and World Athletics ratified it. The race was adidas's own event, the first edition of Adizero: Road to Records.
Thirty-one days later, on 13 October 2021, she was found dead at her home in Iten. She was 25.
Two scales, one break. On the left, the month between the best race of her life and her death, measured in days. On the right, what other people did about it, measured in years.
Sources: World Athletics (the 30:01, the 29:27); Olympics.com and Athletics Weekly on the foundation; OkayAfrica on the Iten centre; Kenyan court reporting on the case. Verified August 2026.
The same timeline as a table
| Date | Scale | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 12 September 2021 | days | Agnes Tirop runs 30:01 for 10 km at Herzogenaurach — a women-only world record |
| 13 October 2021 | days | She is killed at her home in Iten, aged 25 — 31 days later |
| 2021 | years | Tirop's Angels is founded by fellow runners and her family, in Iten |
| March 2023 | years | First Agnes Tirop Memorial Race — more than 1,000 entrants |
| April 2024 | years | The foundation opens a centre for survivors of gender-based violence in Iten |
| 26 April 2025 | years | Agnes Ngetich runs 29:27 at the same race — the record passes on |
| February 2026 | years | New York Road Runners visits Kenya and takes up the safe-house work |
| 3 November 2026 | years | Hearings in the murder case are due to resume |
The left-hand side of that graphic is what happened to her. Everything on the right-hand side is what other people decided to do about it, and it is the reason this page exists at all.
What the Court Record Says
Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was charged with her murder and pleaded not guilty. He was held from 15 October 2021 and released on bail on 15 November 2023, on 500,000 Kenyan shillings, with a condition that he report to Eldoret Central Police Station every Monday. He stopped appearing. A warrant for his arrest was issued in March 2025, after his phones went dead and he left his known address, and he has not been found since. The file passed to Justice John Chigiti in 2026 when Justice Robert Wananda was transferred out of Eldoret, and hearings are listed to resume on 3 November 2026.
Nobody has been convicted of killing Agnes Tirop. We state the position plainly because it keeps changing, and because a page that gets it wrong in either direction does her no favours.
What Her Fellow Runners Built
Tirop's Angels was formed in 2021 by runners who knew her and by her family. Viola Cheptoo chairs it; the board includes Mary Keitany, Joan Chelimo, Carolyne Jepkosgei, the teacher Joan Jepkorir Kiprop and Agnes's father, Vincent Tirop. It works out of Iten, in Elgeyo Marakwet — the training town where she lived, and where the following year another runner, Damaris Muthee Mutua, was found strangled.
The work is unglamorous and specific: talks in schools, training camps and churches about what the warning signs look like; counselling, legal help and healthcare for women who come forward; a helpline. In March 2023 the foundation put on the first Agnes Tirop Memorial Race, with more than a thousand entrants. In late April 2024 it opened a centre in Iten — somewhere a woman can physically walk into. In February 2026 New York Road Runners made its first official visit to Kenya and began working with Cheptoo on the United States non-profit status a permanent safe house needs before it can be built.
The foundation publishes its own work on Instagram; the fullest account in English is the Olympics.com feature on how it started.
How the Name Reached the Kit
adidas has a direct line to all of this: Tirop set her record at the company's event, on the company's campus. What it has done since is put the foundation's name where its athletes are seen. The Road to Records race pack is built around gender-based violence, with part of what it raises going to Tirop's Angels. adidas women race with a mark carrying Tirop's name on their kit, and the logo has turned up on vests worn by athletes as visible as Noah Lyles. Inside the company it sits under With Women We Run, its programme on safe spaces for women who run.
One number closes the circle. The record Tirop set at that race was broken at that same race on 26 April 2025, when Agnes Ngetich ran 29:27 and became the first woman under thirty minutes for a women-only 10 km. The mark moved on; the event she set it at still carries her name every April.
The Piece in Our Archive
The 2023 adidas cycle runs mint and petrol green against navy, with magenta and cyan on the marks — the cycle the 2023 deep-dive covers season by season. The long sleeve in our archive is the mint one. The Tirop's Angels wordmark and its winged figure sit on the left chest in magenta, the three stripes in the same magenta on the right, and three more run the length of the outside of each sleeve in a perforated texture. Engineered mesh opens across the shoulders and forearms. The back is plain apart from a tonal adidas mark at the nape.
It is athlete issue, with the construction our authentication guide describes: competition-weight cloth, a race cut and no retail run. “Pro Elite” is the collector market's label for this channel; adidas does not use it. Pieces reach us because athlete allocations eventually leave the athlete channel, and there is no second production run behind them — one long sleeve carrying this name is one long sleeve.
The piece · in the archiveAdidas Tirop’s Angels Pro Elite 2023 Women Long Sleeves ShirtThe 2023 athlete-issue long sleeve that carries the foundation's name.120,00 €View piece →The 2023 Cycle in the Archive
Every 2023 adidas piece we hold, grouped by edition and refreshed against live stock — the cycle the Tirop's Angels long sleeve belongs to. The season behind it is in the 2023 deep-dive, and every other adidas cycle is in the brand pillar.
Adidas Pro Elite 2023 Women Long Sleeves Shirt90,00 €View Piece →
Adidas Pro Elite 2023 Women SpeedsuitSold out · check back soonView Piece →
Adidas Pro Elite 2023 Men Distance SingletSold out · check back soonView Piece →Adidas Tirop’s Angels Pro Elite 2023 Women Long Sleeves Shirt120,00 €View Piece →
Adidas Pro Elite 2023 Rheon Half Tights – PROMO EDITION120,00 €View Piece →
Adidas Pro Elite 2023 Women Racing Shorts – Promo edition100,00 €View Piece →Promo Edition
Adidas Pro Elite 2023 Women Distance Singlet – Promo edition90,00 €View Piece →Promo Edition
Adidas Pro Elite 2023 Running Shorts 1” – PROMO EDITIONSold out · check back soonView Piece →Promo Edition
Adidas Pro Elite 2023 Women Running Shorts 3” – PROMO EDITIONSold out · check back soonView Piece →Promo Edition
Adidas Pro Elite 2023 Women Booty Short Tights – Promo editionSold out · check back soonView Piece →What is Tirop's Angels?
A Kenyan foundation set up in 2021 by fellow runners and the family of Agnes Tirop, after she was killed at her home in Iten. It works against gender-based violence in Kenya's running heartland: awareness sessions in schools, camps and churches, counselling and legal and medical support for survivors, a helpline, and since April 2024 a physical centre in Iten. Viola Cheptoo chairs it; the board includes Mary Keitany, Joan Chelimo, Carolyne Jepkosgei and Agnes's father, Vincent Tirop.
Who was Agnes Tirop?
A Kenyan distance runner, born 23 October 1995. She won the senior title at the 2015 World Cross Country Championships at nineteen, took world 10,000 m bronze in 2017 and 2019, finished fourth in the Tokyo Olympic 5000 m, and on 12 September 2021 ran 30:01 for 10 km at Herzogenaurach — a ratified women-only world record. She was killed 31 days later, aged 25.
Has anyone been convicted of Agnes Tirop's murder?
No. Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was charged and pleaded not guilty. He was released on bail in November 2023, failed to appear, and a warrant was issued for his arrest in March 2025; he has not been found since. The case is before Justice John Chigiti and hearings are listed to resume on 3 November 2026. There has been no verdict.
Why does adidas kit carry the Tirop's Angels name?
Tirop set her world record at Adizero: Road to Records, adidas's own race on its campus in Herzogenaurach, weeks before she was killed. adidas supports the foundation: part of what the Road to Records race pack raises goes to Tirop's Angels, and its athletes carry a mark with Tirop's name on their kit. The work sits inside the company's With Women We Run programme.
What is the Adidas Tirop's Angels Pro Elite 2023 long sleeve?
A 2023 athlete-issue long sleeve from the adidas Pro Elite channel, in the cycle's mint colourway, carrying the Tirop's Angels wordmark and winged figure on the left chest in magenta. It was issued through the athlete channel rather than sold at retail, which is why so few exist. One is in our archive.
Sources and References
- Agnes Tirop — Wikipedia — Dates, palmarès, personal bests, case status
- Tirop and Teferi smash world records in Herzogenaurach — World Athletics — The 30:01 on 12 September 2021
- Ratified: world 10km record by Tirop — World Athletics — Ratification of the record
- Ngetich breaks women-only world 10km record with 29:27 — World Athletics — 26 April 2025, same race
- Tirop's Angels: how a death began a movement — Olympics.com — Foundation, adidas support, memorial race
- Tirop's angels on a mission to end gender-related violence — Athletics Weekly — Founders and programmes
- Tirop's Angels open centre for GBV survivors — OkayAfrica — The Iten centre, April 2024
- Kenyan marathoner fighting gender-based violence — UN Africa Renewal — Viola Cheptoo on the foundation's work
- Court issues arrest warrant for Ibrahim Rotich — Daily Nation — Bail terms and the March 2025 warrant
- New judge takes over the Agnes Tirop murder trial — HUBZ Media — Justice Chigiti; hearings from 3 November 2026
- Tirops Angels — New York Road Runners — The February 2026 visit and the safe-house work