NAIROBI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Former world 400m hurdles champion Nicholas Bett of Kenya has been killed in a car accident.
Bett, who was 28, died after the car he was driving veered off the road and landed in a ditch in western Kenya on Wednesday morning. He was a member of the Kenya Police Athletics team and was managed by Finnish agent Jukka Harkonen.
Nandi County Police Commander Patrick Wambani confirmed the death, saying the occupant died at the scene.
According to police reports, the athlete hit a bump before losing control of his car. Bett was driving home after he had jetted into Nairobi on Tuesday from Asaba, Nigeria, where he was part of the Kenya team that emerged overall winners of the African Athletics Championships that concluded on Sunday.
Bett made history by being the first Kenyan athlete to win a sprint world title, clocking 47.79 seconds to triumph in the 400m hurdles during the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China.
However, a series of injuries and loss of form drew the wind out of his sails and he had struggled for the last three years to repeat his feat at a global level.
Bett failed to defend his title in London last year due to injury, and finished eighth at this year's Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
Born in January 27, 1990, Nicholas Bett was the second born in a family of three. His brother Haron Koech is also a Kenyan Olympian.
Bett began to compete on the international track and field circuit in 2015, but was perennially overlooked for national team selection.
In 2012, he missed the entire season after he was signed up by the Kenya police, and had to endure a mandatory nine months of training at Kiganjo Police College.
However, he made a comeback a year later to finish second during the Kenyan national trials for the World Championships in Moscow.
He clocked 49.70, which placed him among the top 50 runners in the 400m hurdles race, but was still not named in the Kenyan team to Moscow.
Next for Bett was the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 in Scotland. However, he was beaten in the preliminary stages of the Club Games.
Bett was carrying an injury in Glasgow and crashed out after finishing fifth in heat one.
"When we got there, I had a tendon injury, I ran 51.21 in the heats and did not make the semis. Afterwards, we were diverted and told we would go directly to Morocco for the African Championships," Bett said then.
At the Africa Championships in Marrakech, Bett won bronze, clocking 49.03, and anchored the Kenyan team in the 4x400m relays.
It was at the Africa Championships that his coach Vincent Mumo introduced him to his would-be manager Jukka Harkonen.
"I wanted a manager and my coach encouraged me to team up with Jukka," he added.
His manager organized training for him in December that same year in South Africa, where he met coach Hennie Koetze, and in 2015 he was sent to Finland for more training, which would change his running style completely.
Later that year, he went on to win gold at the World Championships in Beijing. He made his Diamond League debut in 2016, but his later career was plagued by injury.
Bett is survived by his wife Gladys and three children.
