First man to run length of Africa comes clean on man who stole his moment

England’s Russ Cook became the first man to run the length of Africa last month, but his moment was ruined in brutal scenes at the finish line.

After 16,000km, 352 days and being kidnapped in the Congo, England’s Russ Cook achieved the unthinkable in early April, becoming the first person to run the entire length of Africa.

Cook started his odyssey at Africa’s most southerly point, the South African village of L’Agulhas, running up the west coast for more than 16,000km.

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For the record, that’s an average of more than 45km per day — or more than a marathon per day.

The monumental distance is also equivalent to 385 marathons.

Just short of a full year later, the 27-year-old old from Sussex crossed the finish line in Ras Angela in Tunisia on April 7.

While he had hoped to complete the trip in 240 days, he had a few setbacks, including being robbed at gunpoint in Angola, back pain in Nigeria and a visa issue to enter Algeria as well as bouts of food poisoning.

He also raised more than £1m ($A1.9m) for charity.

But despite all he was able to achieve and all the adversity he overcame, Cook wasn’t able to break the tape at his own finish line after a Tunisian man crossed the line first.

Cook with the man who’d break the tape in front of him. Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP

Plenty of people wanted to be involved in the closing stages. Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP

Cook was accompanied by a huge group of supporters on the final leg of the epic journey but the man wearing a yellow shirt and carrying a Tunisian flag ran across the line in front of him.

Speaking to The Fellas podcast this week, Cook, who is known as the “Hardest Geezer” for his efforts, was asked about the man who stole his moment.

“I did say … we got to the last 100 metres and I said ‘let me go, let me go, let me go’.“I don’t know if he just didn’t hear me, I don’t know.”

Watching the moment again, he couldn’t help but laugh, saying “that was mad”.

One of the hosts joked: “350 days and then this guy smokes you bro!”

The other host tried to defend the man, saying he may not have appreciated the magnitude of what Cook had achieved.

Cook replied: “The only annoying thing … I didn’t really care at the time. I didn’t really know it happened.

“Just watching it back, it’s like ‘mate – we’ve got a documentary we’re making, how are we going to cut that out?’”

The hosts suggested maybe they might need to CGI him out of the documentary.

Cook finished: “He’s a Tunisian man obviously, he’s probably just proud of country and wants to make sure Tunisia is represented at the finish line.

“But he went a little bit far with it.”

Cook poses with the memorial sign marking the northernmost point of Africa. Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP

Cook also opened up on the most dangerous part of his run, when he was kidnapped in the Congo by a gang armed with machetes.

“It was very emotional to be honest — basically I thought I was going to die on a couple of occasions that day,” Cook said.

Having reached 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, Cook was going to run 100km on the day.

He wound up running out of water, split up from his crew as they couldn’t follow the same path.

He ended up running through a village where they tried to extort him for money.

“They ended up trying to get money out of me and then walked me out into the bush, two guys with machete,” he said.

“I was s**tting myself bad. And then emptied my bag — had nothing but biscuits — gave my biscuits and legged it.

“I was running through the jungle and then two guys on a motorbike came and were trying to communicate … they were trying to take me to my friends. I don’t know if this is true, normally the boys would send a not when they were sending people for me, but I’d run like 50k’s, I had no water and was really dehydrated, I was really hunger, my phone had no signal — I’ve kind of got no choice. Either it’s this or I’m camping in the jungle overnight and that’s probably not a good idea.”

He went with the men and hope told himself “if I’m not back with the boys in like half an hour, then I know it’s bad news”.

He was on the bike for seven hours and ended up in a rural village where they again tried to extort money out of them.

Originally published as First man to run length of Africa comes clean on man who stole his moment