Tragedy as ex-World Champion Nicholas Bett Dies in Road Accident

The athletics world has been thrown into mourning after former 400M hurdles world champion Nicholas Bett perished in a road accident in Nandi County, Kenya.

His death comes a day after he returned from the Africa Senior Athletics Championship held in Nigeria.

The accident happened early in the morning when the car that Bett was driving veered off the road and landed in a ditch near Lessos along Eldoret-Kapsabet road.

Confirming the accident, Nandi County police commander Patrick Wambani said the athlete’s vehicle hit the bump before flying into the small valley at a place called Sachoi.

The 24-year-old athlete made history at the 2015 IAAF World Championship in Beijing China after becoming the first Kenyan to win a gold medal in the 400m hurdles race.

He beat Russia’s Denis Kudryavtsev, running a national record of 47.79 with Jeffery Gibson of the Bahamas finishing third.

Bett’s gold was Kenya’s first at a distance shorter than 800m.

The youngster scaled the hurdles fame when he ran the sixth fastest time in the world during World Championships trials in 48.29 in August 2015 in Nairobi.

Having missed part of the 2012 season, Bett came back to finish second during the trials for the Moscow Worlds in 49.70 that placed him in the top 50 vanguard that year even though he didn’t make it to Moscow.

Bett was selected for the Commonwealth Games and the Africa Championships in 2014 but managed bronze at the continental event in 49.03 in 400m hurdles and 4x400m relays.

He began to compete on the international track and field circuit in 2015 and had wins at the Savo Games and Lappeenranta Games in Finland, the same year.

However, Bett failed to defend his title in the 2017 World Championships in London after he was ruled out with a right leg injury that he suffered during same year’s Diamond League in Doha.

Bett was raised up in an athletics family where his twin brother Haron Koech who is a Kenyan Olympian.

He leaves behind his wife Gladys and three children.