Jacques Freitag of South Africa waves his national flag after he won the Men’s high jump event at the World Athletics Championships, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Monday, Aug. 25, 2003. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month.
| Photo Credit: AP
South African former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag has been found dead with gunshot wounds having been missing for two weeks, South African media reported on Tuesday.
According to Netwerk24, Freitag, 42, was found in the grass near a cemetery in Pretoria West, South Africa, and police are treating the case as murder.
He was reported missing after he was last seen leaving his mother’s house with an unknown man late on June 17.
Freitag won world championships at youth, junior, and senior levels. He took gold in the high jump at the 2003 World Championships in Paris.
He jumped a personal best 2.38 metres in 2005. (Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk Editing by Toby Davis)