Bett backs hurdles team to shine in Rio Olympic Games
Kenya's Nicholas Bett competes in the semi-final of the men's 400 metres hurdles athletics event at the 2015 IAAF World Championships at the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium in Beijing on August 23, 2015. PHOTO | FRANCK FIFE |
What you need to know:
- Team Kenya athletes step up preparations for championships in Eldoret
- Bett said Kenya’s hurdles team boasts experience and is capable of performing well in Rio de Janeiro.
World 400 metres hurdles champion Nicholas Bett has said Kenya’s hurdles team is capable of ripping apart the opposition at next month’s Olympic Games in Brazil.
Bett, who won the world title at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Beijing, said Kenya’s hurdles team boasts experience and is capable of performing well in Rio de Janeiro.
“The Olympic Games will be the biggest assignment in my career. The team we have for Rio is very strong and experienced. Every athlete is training to beat Kenya and I know all eyes are on me as the world champion,” Bett said on Wednesday in Eldoret.
“Together with my team mates, we are training very hard to prepare for anything that comes our way,” Bett added.
WON MAIDEN GOLD MEDAL
After bagging Kenya’s first World Championship gold medal over 400m hurdles in Beijing last year, Bett says the country is again in a great position to perform well at the Olympics.
Following the retirement of 2012 Olympics 400m hurdles champion Felix Sanchez from the Dominican Republic, Bett’s team now faces 2012 Olympics silver medallist Michael Tinsely of USA and bronze medallist Javier Culson of Puerto Rico.
“The 400 meters hurdles team is capable of producing great performances in Rio,” Bett told Daily Nation Sport at Team Kenya’s training base in Eldoret.
The police officer made history in Beijing, coming off from lane nine to win gold in the one-lap and barriers race, a discipline that has for decades been dominated by athletes from the USA, Great Britain and Jamaica.
Men’s 400m hurdles team has Bett who is also the African record holder, African champion Boniface Mucheru and African Athletics Championships bronze medallist Aron Koech.
Mucheru was in Team Kenya at the Beijing World Championships, coming fifth in one of the semi-final races.
He had also competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Bett, who basks in an African and Kenyan record of 47:79 seconds from victory in Beijing, says he is excited to again compete against his brother Koech.
