After 16,000km and 352 days, UK man Russ Cook reaches goal of running length of Africa
- Russ Cook on Sunday completed epic Africa run that took him across 16 countries
- The 27-year-old set off from South Africa’s most southerly point on April 22 last year
Sore and sandblasted but triumphant, runner Russ Cook reached the northernmost point of Africa on Sunday, almost a year after he set off from its southern tip on a quest to run the length of the continent.
Dozens of supporters gathered on a rocky outcrop beside the Mediterranean in northern Tunisia, cheering on the British charity fundraiser, who has run more than 16,000km (10,000 miles) across 16 countries in 352 days.
“I’m a little bit tired,” Cook said – likely an understatement.
During his journey, the 27-year-old endurance athlete from Worthing in southern England crossed jungle and desert, swerved conflict zones and was delayed by theft, injury and visa problems.
Cook – known on social media by his nickname, Hardest Geezer – set off on April 22, 2023 from Cape Agulhas in South Africa, the continent’s southernmost point. He hoped to complete the journey in 240 days, running the equivalent of more than a marathon every day.
He and his team had money, passports and equipment stolen in a gunpoint robbery in Angola. He was temporarily halted by back pain in Nigeria. And he was almost stopped in his tracks by the lack of a visa to enter Algeria, before diplomatic intervention from the Algerian embassy in Britain managed to secure the required documents.
Cook, who has spoken about how running helped him deal with his own mental health struggles, previously ran about 3,000km (2,000 miles) from Istanbul, Turkey to Worthing in 68 days.
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British endurance athlete runs the length of Africa in under a year
His African run has raised more than £690,000 (US$870,000) for the Running Charity, which works with homeless young people, and Sandblast, a charity that helps displaced people from Western Sahara.
“It’s quite hard to put into words, 352 days on the road, long time without seeing family, my girlfriend,” Cook told Sky News as he started running on Sunday, accompanied by supporters who had come from far and wide to run the final stretch with him. “My body is in a lot of pain. But one more day, I’m not about to complain.”
Cook said he planned to celebrate with a party, where British band Soft Play were expected to perform.
“We’re going to have strawberry daiquiris on the beach tonight,” he said. “It’s going to be unreal.”
