2 days Ago By JAMIE PYATT
Former world high jump champion Jacques Freitag has been with his body dumped in a field beside a cemetery in South Africa. Troubled retired athlete Freitag, 42, went missing two weeks ago after visiting his mother’s home at Bronkhorstpruit, near Pretoria, six days after his birthday. Reports circulating at the time said the one-time golden boy of South African sport was down on his luck and out of work and struggling with recreational drugs.
He was picked up from his mother’s home shortly after midnight and dropped at a nearby area of Booysens by a mystery man who said that he had work for him. But he was never seen again until his blood soaked body was found this afternoon with several bullet wounds in it by Zandfontein Cemetery in Pretoria West. His sister Chrissie Lewis had been leading a hunt for her 6ft 8in tall brother since he vanished on June 17 and said he was extremely distinctive due to his height.
South African Police spokesman Brigadier Brenda Muridili confirmed that the former field eventer had been shot multiple times and it was being treated as murder. Freitag is a four-times South African high jump champion and he still holds the National Record after clearing 2.38m which he set in a competition in 2005.
In 2003 he cleared 2.35m at the Stade de France in Paris to win the gold medal at the IAAF World Championships and put his name on the world map. He retired from sport in 2013 and was said to have in recent times been sleeping on the streets or sofa surf.
