Beijing 2015 world champion showed there was no barrier big enough for human will

On a gentle night in Beijing Nicholas Kiplagat Bett stunned the world when he became the first Kenyan to win a sprints gold medal at the World Championships.

It was an unprecedented and historic feat for Bett who hailed from an athletics loving family and yesterday morning, the country and indeed the world was stunned when news of his untimely death following a road accident in Nandi County filtered through.

Nicholas Bett of Kenya reacts after winning the men's 400m hurdles event during the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing, China August 25, 2015. REUTERS

Tributes immediately flooded social media as the shocking news sunk in, his name shooting to the top of the most trending topic on micro-blogging site within minutes as celebrities and ordinary Kenyans hailed the man who hit the pinnacle of his sport few can ever dream of reaching.

The demise of the soft-spoken 28-year-old  who had just returned home from the Asaba 2018 CAA Africa Athletics Championships in Nigeria, cast a dark cloud over the euphoria of Kenya’s team winning the overall title since 2010.

For a man who made a name jumping over hurdles, it was a cruel twist of fate that the SUV he was driving could not navigate past bumps at Lessos Junction along the Eldoret-Kapsabet road, triggering the sequence of events that robbed the country of a hero.

His brother, Aron Koech, part of the victorious men 4x400m relay quartet at Asaba was besides himself with grief, having lost the man who inspired him to launch his sprints career.

Kenya's Nicholas Bett celebrates after winning the men’s 400m hurdles final at the World Athletics Championships at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015.

Born on January 27, 1990 in Kisii, Bett’s affection for his sport was influenced early on by his father.

“My dad used to make hurdles for us when we were young using sticks. After coming back from herding cows, he would make us jump them in competition amongst ourselves,” Bett told a team from the IAAF Day in Life Project that visited his family home on the outskirts of Eldoret town in 2016 when they called on him.

A naturally gifted sportsman, the lanky Bett tried his hand in several disciplines and captained Cheptil High School in volleyball, leading the institution to the regional school games, playing right or main strong positions.

He also competed in High jump and Decathlon and at the Kenya Trials for the 2010 IAAF World Under 20, Bett won the former but alongside fellow-sprinter, Boniface Mucheru and 800m runner Ferguson Rotich, they were not selected for Moncton, Canada.

After he was turned down again for the Nairobi 2010 Africa Championships after finishing fifth in the 110m Hurdles, Bett made the switch to the distance that defined his short career.

Commonwealth Games

His breakthrough came when he was selected in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Rabat Africa Athletics Championships where he crashed out in the heats in the former and won bronze in the latter. He then won a second bronze as part of the 4X400m relay squad in Morocco.

“I ran the Hurdles and became the bronze medallist in my then personal best of 49.03. This is what gave me the morale to train harder in the 400m Hurdles because if I could run that time while injured, I believed I could run faster,” he recalled.

The rest as they say, is history. The athlete who was managed by Finnish national Jukka Harkonen and was a Kenya Police officer shot out of lane nine as a surprise finalist at Beijing 2015 Worlds to gold in 47.79.

The injury that dogged him from 2014 would sadly, recur and prevent him from reaching the peak of that performance for the rest of his career, missing the Rio 2016 Olympics and London 2017 Worlds, his comeback at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games ending with a disappointing eighth finish.

The 2016 Paris Diamond League winner was still finding his way back before the tragic accident yesterday where he jumped his last hurdle but as the athletics fraternity mourns, Bett proved there is no barrier big enough for human will. May he Rest In Peace.

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