The 27-year-old traversed through Namibia, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, and Algeria before reaching Ras Angela on Sunday evening. Along his journey, the endurance athlete, known as the "Hardest Geezer," also raised over half a million pounds for charity
Extreme marathon runner Russ Cook concluded his journey across the entire length of Africa in Tunisia on Sunday, covering 16 countries over 352 days. Along the 16,000-kilometer route, Cook encountered challenges including being robbed at gunpoint and battling food poisoning. He embarked on his adventure in April last year, starting from L’Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa, and journeyed up the west coast of the continent.
“The first person ever to run the entire length of Africa. Mission complete,” Cook posted on social media platform X.
The 27-year-old traversed through Namibia, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, and Algeria before reaching Ras Angela on Sunday evening. Along his journey, the endurance athlete, known as the “Hardest Geezer,” also raised over half a million pounds for charity.
“The main goal is to challenge yourself and do something incredible which is what ‘Hardest Geezer’ is all about,” Simon Klima of Givestar charity platform told Reuters.
“Simultaneously raise a lot of money for some really important causes, that’s happening on the Givestar platform, so we are very privileged to have that happening there.
“So far nearly 600,000 pounds ($758,160.00) has been raised for two charities, Sandblast and the Running charity. Hopefully, going to hit a million pounds, Russ will hit a million pounds with his fundraiser, that’s the target.”
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Cook was joined by supporters on the last stretch of his journey, with many traveling specifically to be there.
“I saw the post on Instagram where he invited everyone out. I was laying on my couch, it was a Sunday afternoon, I saw it and he said everybody can come,” Warren Blake from the U.S. told Reuters.
“I just couldn’t miss a crazy historic opportunity like this.”
Wearing an England football jersey, Cook arrived at the finish line to chants of “Geezer, geezer,” and told reporters: “I’m pretty tired”, before enjoying a well-earned strawberry daiquiri.
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