Quito, October 24
Ecuadorian sprinter Alex Quinonez was fatally shot in the port city of Guayaquil, police said on Saturday.
Quiñónez, who was 32, became a national hero in 2012 when he reached the 200 metre final at the London Games, finishing seventh in a race won by Usain Bolt.
And then in 2019 he became the first Ecuadorian athlete to win a global medal in a track event when he finished third at the World Championships in Doha.
Quinonez qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games but did not compete after being suspended for breaching the whereabouts rules.
Guayaquil-based newspaper El Universo reported that he was fatally shot on a street in the northwest section of the city around 9:20 pm on Friday and that another man was also killed.
There was no immediate report of arrests.
Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso vowed in a statement on Saturday that the slaying “will not go unpunished.”
Quiñónez’s death was also confirmed by the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee in a statement on Saturday.
It said the circumstances of his death “have not yet been clarified.”
News of the sprinter’s death came on the same day as the funeral of Kenyan distance star Agnes Tirop, who was killed earlier this month. — AP
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