Nicholas Bett

Nicholas Bett started out as a volleyball player but soon turned to track. His big breakthrough came at the 2014 African Championships when he won bronze medals in the 400 hurdles and the 4x400 relay. He had been runner-up in both 2013-14 in the 400 hurdles at the Kenyan Championships, after placing third in 2011. In 2015 Bett surprised even more when he won the World Championships in the 400 metre hurdles, the first Kenyan ever to win a major international hurdles event. He was disqualified in a heat at the 2016 Olympics but returned later in the year to win the Diamond League Final.

His twin brother, Aron Koech, was also a 400 metre hurdler who competed for Kenya at the 2016 Olympics and won gold in the 4x400 at the 2018 African Championships. Nicholas Bett was killed in an early-morning car crash in August 2018, when he was returning from a training session at Kenya’s high-altitude training center. He was only 28-years-old.

Personal Best: 400H – 47.79 (2015).