Tragedy hit Kenya’s sports world, Wednesday, as the country’s former 400m hurdles world champion, Nicholas Bett, in a car crash. He was aged 28.
Bett’s tragic end, in Nandi, north-west Kenya, came just days after he returned from the 21st African Senior Athletics Championships in Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria.
Athletics Kenya confirmed Bett’s death on Twitter, Wednesday, just as the East African country’s Sports Minister, Rashid Echesa, paid condolences to the Bett family on his Twitter handle.
The late Bett hit global limelight in 2015, in China, when he made history by becoming the first Kenyan to win a world gold at a distance shorter than 800 metres.
At the continental level, Bett, a twin, was a two-time African bronze medallist. His twin brother, Haron Koech, is also a hurdler.
The 21st African Senior Athletics Championships was held in the newly-completed Stephen Keshi Stadium with a record 52 countries participating.
The Asaba championship was the second time a Nigerian city hosted the event. The first was 29 years ago, which Lagos, then Nigeria’s federal capital, hosted.
