Hurdles champ Bett ruled out of London Worlds

Nicholas Bett, Kenya’s first world 400m hurdles champion, will miss next month’s London world athletics championships after suffering a stress fracture to the shin.

Bett was forced to skip the Kenyan national trials on June 22-23 in Nairobi to seek treatment in Finland, but was included in the team by virtue of being the defending champion.

“It is disappointing that I will not be defending my World title in London. I had prepared well to make up for the disappointment of the Rio Olympics where I went out in the first round,” Bett told AFP.

His manager Jukka Harkonen confirmed that Bett, who became the first Kenyan to win gold in sprint events at a World championships has a serious fracture to his fibula bone.

“We took a high quality MRI on June 8 and it was discovered Bett had a serious stress fracture,” Harkonen told a local daily.

“It’s after he started to jog that the pain recurred and that is why we decided to have another MRI scan on June 31 in Lahti, Finland. He won’t be able to compete at that level in London since it will be risky and the possibility of breaking the fibula bone is too big.”

Kenya’s hopes were shattered further when Olympic 400m hurdles silver medallist Boniface Mucheru pulled out of his race in Modova, Italy last Sunday and remains doubtful for the world championships.