A court in Kenya has sentenced two men to 35 years each for the murder of Ugandan athlete Benjamin Kiplagat at the end of last year.

The Olympic steeplechaser was stabbed to death on New Year’s Eve in the town of Eldoret, known as a top training centre for athletes.

“Your actions were cruel to a defenceless person whose life you cut short,” Justice Reuben Nyakundi told Peter Ushuru Khalumi and David Ekai Lokere during the sentencing hearing in the High Court in Eldoret.

Kiplagat’s murder shocked people in Kenya, which has seen the killing of several other elite athletes in recent years.

The judge said that Khalumi and Lokere had followed Kiplagat, who was in his car, and then CCTV footage showed that they had intentionally killed him in a premeditated act.

The exact motive for the murder was not clear but at the time of the arrests, the police had said it was robbery.

On Monday, in an emotional request to the court, the athlete’s mother had asked Justice Nyakundi to hand down life sentences.

She talked about how her son, who started his career running barefoot, had worked hard to become an international runner and the family’s breadwinner, the Nation newspaper reports.

“My son had 8,000 [Kenyan] shillings ($62; £48) and an expensive mobile phone, but the killers did not take any of the property from him. Their mission was to painfully finish him,” the newspaper quotes her as saying.

Despite not acceding to the family’s request for life sentences, they said they were happy with the outcome and that justice had been served.

Kiplagat, who was 34 when he died, reached the final of the 3,000m steeplechase at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also competed in the following two Games and is the holder of the Ugandan record at the event.