Guinness set to hand ‘Hardest Geezer’ record for Africa run
Russ Cook completed 10,100-mile journey in 352 days but rival runners have raised doubts over his title
GUINNESS World Records are set to honour a British athlete nicknamed the “Hardest Geezer” for his run across Africa, despite rival runners laying claim to the title.
Russ Cook, 27, completed his run on Sunday having spanned the length of Africa – 10,100 miles (16,300km) in 352 days – and encountered machete-wielding villagers, armed robbers and bouts of food poisoning along the way.
Mr Cook, from Worthing, West Sussex, claimed in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he was “the first person ever to run the entire length of Africa”.
This drew the ire of ultra-marathon runners who accused him of “denying” the achievements of others who traversed the length of Africa as long ago as two decades prior.
Now, the row has taken another twist as the official awarding body for world records confirmed that Mr Cook is poised for his own title.
Guinness World Records congratulated the former cleaner and salesman on his feat, saying that “we are looking forward to receiving evidence from him for the Fastest crossing of Africa on foot (male)”. The body said: “As per our guidelines, the start and finish point of the record title, Fastest crossing of Africa on foot (male) is Ras Ben Sakka, Tunisia, and Cape L’agulhas, South Africa, which are the Northernmost and Southernmost points of mainland Africa. Russ would be the first record holder of this title and we are looking forward to receiving the evidence for our records management team.”
This is despite the World Runners Association (WRA), a group of seven ultra-runners, claiming that Danish athlete Jesper Olsen became the first man to run Africa in 2010 when he ran 7,949 miles from Taba in Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa in 434 days.
Phil Essam, WRA president, said the group “contests the claim”.
Mr Olsen waded into the row by gently chiding Mr Cook for taking days off during his challenge, comparing him with Serge Girard, a WRA member from France who crossed five continents “without one single day off ”. Guinness World Records told The Telegraph yesterday that there is no such thing as an official record for the first man to run the length of Africa, because “there is no recognised standard for the route, distance or time taken”.
As a result, it only monitors records for the fastest crossing of Africa on foot and the fastest journey from Cape Town to Cairo on foot, which it says is held by another British athlete, Nicholas Bourne, who ran this in 318 days between January and December 1998. Mr Olsen’s run is not a world record.
Marie Leautey, a WRA member who was one of the critics of Mr Cook’s claim, said: “If he now wants to modify his claim and say, ‘Oh, okay, I’m the fastest,’ then I don’t think we have any issue with that.”
However, she added: “But by saying he was the first man in the world to run across Africa is was like he was denying Jesper and in fact Nicholas runs, saying they don’t exist and they hadn’t run across Africa, which they had.”
The Telegraph has contacted Mr Cook for comment.
On Sunday, Russ Cook, the self-styled “Hardest Geezer”, completed his epic traverse of Africa, arriving at Ras ben Sakka, the northernmost point of Tunisia. He was ready for a drink, even a strawberry daiquiri, which proves that extreme exercise will warp your judgment.
The numbers tell a story of remarkable endurance: it took the 27-year-old 352 days to run more than 10,000 miles. Along the way he had to contend with bandits, injuries, harsh sandstorms, and – perhaps trickiest of all – intransigent passport officials. He has documented the whole thing on Instagram, where he has amassed more than a million followers. He might be the most media-savvy man from Worthing this side of Billy Idol.
With a long beard, bleached to a point of high redness by a year in the African sun, Cook’s appearance is as distinctive as his achievement. He’s a kind of pirate in trainers, part of a long tradition of male ginger folk heroes stretching back through Ben Stokes and Ed Sheeran to Henry VIII.
Or at least he ought to be. Sadly for Cook, he is discovering that there is one thing the public loves more than celebrating a high-achiever, and that’s knocking them down to size. Call it Tall Poppy Syndrome. There is no physical achievement so great it cannot be criticised by the rest of us, sat with Deliveroo boxes balanced on our bellies, a glass of malbec in one hand and a smartphone in the other.
Cook hadn’t broached the ribbon before people began casting aspersions on his effort. He took a few days off in the middle, which for some is a fatal compromise in running 385 marathons in 352 days. The World Runners Association, a tiny group of ultra-marathoners, believe one of their number, a Danish runner called Jesper Olsen, achieved the feat in 2010. Others pointed out that Cook’s run was many thousands of miles longer than Olsen’s, but the damage was done.
Besides, long as it was, Cook’s path didn’t go through the trickiest bit of Africa. He went around the west, through cheerful and welcoming countries like Nigeria and Mauritania. Sure, he was robbed at gunpoint in Angola, but only once. And yes, he went missing for a few days in the Congo when he was being held by machete-wielding bandits, but he was released quickly enough after his team paid them off. You can hardly call yourself the hardest geezer if you’ve avoided Somalia and Sudan. Hardish, certainly, but hardest? No.
Ultimately this is the biggest issue: no matter what you achieve, you cannot call yourself “Hardest Geezer”. That is for others to bestow on you, like an OBE, and even then probably only in jest. We will forgive many things, even in ultramarathoners, but not a self-appointed nickname.
Speaking of loafing, reports from
the fashion pages suggest the men’s loafer is back in style. Partly this is seasonal, as the sun makes its first appearance of the year and men wake up in the night worrying about what they will wear in the summer. But there is a general Sloane revivalism afoot, too. Mark Ronson and Paul Rudd have both been photographed in loafers in recent weeks. More worryingly, Andrew Scott, star of Netflix’s new Patricia Highsmith adaptation, Ripley, wore a brown pair for the premiere.
Given Highsmith’s preoccupation with depravity and evil, it is fitting that Scott wore them without socks.
Like so many fashion statements, sockless loafers are a flourish left to the professionals. Amateurs are prone to blisters, fungal infection and looking like they are about to flog time-share apartments in Costa Brava. That is before we have considered the smell. What looks elegant on the red carpet is very different when whiffed close-up after a few hours of sweaty incubation.
A dark day at my local farmer’s
market, where my vegan kimchi dealer has retired to go travelling. Fermented cabbage is not easy to stockpile. I have realised that the farmers market is the closest thing I have to church. We go as a family every Sunday morning. I bribe the children with the promise of treats. We catch up with other members of the community. Even if we don’t need anything, I feel obliged to reach into my wallet in the spirit of supporting the general enterprise. There is often a sermon or two, on subjects as diverse as raw milk, single-origin coffee beans, and why freight-by-sail is due a comeback.
The common complaint with these places is that they are a rip-off, but they are a bargain for the warm glow of self-righteousness.