Ex-Olympics star Jacques Freitag shot dead and his body dumped in field beside cemetery in South Africa
WORLD high jump gold medallist Jacques Freitag has been found dead with bullet wounds in a field in South Africa – two weeks after his mysterious disappearance.
The troubled retired athlete went missing a couple of weeks ago after visiting his mum’s home in Bronkhorstpruit a few days after his birthday.
Reports at the time said the one-time golden boy of South African sport was down on his luck and out of work while struggling with recreational drugs.
The 42-year-old was picked up from his mum’s shortly after midnight and dropped at a nearby area of Booysens by a mystery man who said that he had work for him.
This was reportedly the last time he was seen alive.
His blood-soaked body was tragically found on Tuesday afternoon with multiple bullet wounds beside Zandfontein Cemetary in Pretoria West.
The ex-athlete’s sister Chrissie Lewis had been leading a hunt for her brother since he vanished on 17 June.
She suggested he would be easily recognisable being a staggering 6ft8 tall.
South African Police spokesman Brigadier Brenda Muridili confirmed that the man had tragically been shot multiple times – therefore treating the case as a murder.
Mr Freitag was a four-time South African high jump champion and 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, putting his name on the world map.
He retired from sport in 2013 and was said to have recently been sleeping on the streets or sofa surfing having been unable to hold down a full-time job.
Mr Freitag was one of only 10 athletes including Jamaican sprinters Usain Bolt and Veronica Campbell-Brown to win World Championships at all three levels.
He won the high jump at the 1999 Youth World Championships in Poland in 1999, the Junior WC’s in Chile in 2000 and the Senior’s in France in 2003.
The disturbing news comes after a Brit couple were kidnapped in South Africa and had their bodies dismembered and sold, it’s been claimed.
Devoted pensioners Tony and Gillian Dinnis were attacked and abducted last August allegedly by three gunmen at their remote farm in Middlerus in KwaZulu-Natal province.
Two men were arrested in September last year and later released pending further investigations.
One of them – 22-year-old Lungelo Mkhize – confessed that Tony, 73, and wife Gillian, 78, were brutally butchered.
Mkhize allegedly worked on the Dinnis farm for two years before he found a job in Mooi River as a security guard.
The 22-year-old was rearrested this March facing two counts of kidnapping and one of extortion.
Jacques Freitag's career
THE retired champion high jumper was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds.
1999: Freitag won the under-18s Youth World Championships title in Poland
2000: Won the Junior World Championships under-20s gold in Chile
2003: Cleared 2.35m at the Stade de France in Paris to win the Gold Medal at the IAAF World Championships
2005: National Record made after clearing 2.38m (a record that is still held today)
2013: Retired from sport
