Thread: Brits Behaving Badly

Brit Who First Ran Length of Africa in 1998 Calls Current Controversy ‘A Storm in a Teacup’

April 11, 2024Mark Agnew

Endurance | Long-distance Trekking | Marathon

Nicholas Bourne on his 1998 Africa run. Photo: Nicholas Bourne

Nicholas Bourne, a British runner who ran the length of Africa 26 years ago, has dismissed the controversy over “Hardest Geezer” Russell Cook. Bourne would like to see Cook celebrated rather than embroiled in a debate over who was first.

Cook, 27, arrived in Tunisia on Sunday after running from the southernmost to the northernmost tip of Africa. On Instagram, the flamboyant runner with the scraggly red beard called himself “the first person to run the full length of Africa.”
Russ Cook, above, finished his Trans-Africa run last Sunday, but his claim that he is the first to do it has been controversial. Photo: Russ Cook/Instagram


The claim has caused controversy. As he drew near the finish, the World Runners Association (WRA) released a statement saying a Danish man named Jesper Olsen ran from Egypt to South Africa from 2008-2012.
The WRA ratifies around-the-world runs by examining logbooks, data, and GPS to make sure claimants are genuine. It also defines continental crossings. By its standards, ocean to ocean, with a minimum distance of 3,000km, counts as a continental crossing.
In an era before social media, Bourne runs past elephants in Botswana, in 1998. Photo: Nicholas Bourne

Definition dispute

The debate centers around what constitutes the length of Africa.
Some say the length of a continent is a straight line as the crow flies along its longitude or latitude. In Africa, that’s 8,000km on a north-south axis.

But Cook’s team defines the “full length” as covering any route between the southern and northern extremes. A huge following defends this common-sense definition.
To add further confusion about who was first, it emerged that another man had run from South Africa to Egypt and was recognized by Guinness World Records. In 1998, Nicholas Bourne, then 28, ran for 10 months and finished by the pyramids in Cairo.
The WRA is preparing a new statement recognizing Bourne as the first. But Bourne himself thinks the controversy is overblown.
“The term ‘storm in a teacup’ springs to mind,” Bourne told ExplorersWeb. “My feelings are congratulations to Russ because what he’s done is absolutely phenomenal. To run that distance and in that time, I have a very good understanding of how hard and difficult it is.”
He believes there wouldn’t be this debate if Russ Cook had just claimed that he was the first to run from the southernmost tip to the northernmost tip of Africa, but that is beside the point.
“It’s so difficult with all the things that get thrown at you,” said Bourne, a former model who now runs a sports management agency. “Russell had some incidents of being held up by people with machetes and running through war zones. I totally understand what he’s been through.”
Bourne and friends during his 1998 Africa run. Photo: Nicholas Bourne

What’s important

Bourne wants people to focus on what’s important, such as the $1 million that Cook raised for charity.
The debate has stirred good memories for Bourne. He’s gone through old pictures and reminisced about all the people he met during the adventure.
Bourne went back and cycled the same route in 2015. What struck him most was how the cities had grown since his run in 1998, especially in Kenya.
Nicholas Bourne arrives in Cairo on Dec. 5, 1998. Photo: Nicholas Bourne

What does the WRA say?

Marie Leautey is a member of the WRA and ran around the world in 2022. She also commends Cook’s achievement. But she says he is not the first in the WRA’s eyes.

She compares it to running across America. Many runners do different routes, some from San Francisco to New York, others from Los Angeles to Miami. They are all considered running across America.
“If I said I have run from Seattle to New York, it would be self-evident that I have run, in effect, a transcontinental length of the continent,” she said. “And people would not go into the details of where the crow flies, or the length of, the lines of latitude, etc.
“I would struggle to understand why this [would be any different in Africa],” she added. “Because the north-south axis of Africa has been run so few times (three as far as I now know), it would be easy and deceitful to [claim a] ‘first in history’ for every route a runner takes.”

https://explorersweb.com/this-brit-f...frica-in-1998/

Originally Posted by DrWilly

“Hardest Geezer” Russell Cook.

The 27-year-old from Worthing, West Sussex, said he had struggled with his mental health, gambling and drinking

[/Q

Could be adopted

I was hoping for more frequent examples of Brits behaving badly. I was under the impression that many Brits were ratbags. Perhaps I was wrong.

I was under the impression that willy is a shit stirrer who quickly ran out of material here.

Originally Posted by 39TG

I was hoping for more frequent examples of Brits behaving badly. I was under the impression that many Brits were ratbags. Perhaps I was wrong.

Originally Posted by cyrille

I was under the impression that willy is a shit stirrer who quickly ran out of material here.

You both know full well that this thread will have legs. Murderers, chancers, pedos and teachers will fill these pages!

Originally Posted by DrWilly

You both know full well that this thread will have legs. Murderers, chancers, pedos and teachers will fill these pages!

It's good to have a hobby.

^
But were you a witness to any of the events. Or is it all beer talk?

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

^
But were you a witness to any of the events. Or is it all beer talk?

I claim the fifth ammendment

A BRITISH tourist was seriously injured on Wednesday morning when he fell four metres from a first-floor balcony in Palma’s Sa Gerreria district.
The incident happened at around 12.45am at an apartment block on Calle Gerreria.
The 27-year-old man- according to eyewitnesses- leant out of the window twice and was said to be in an agitated state.
READ MORE:

• German tourist, 21, plunged to his death on the second day of his Mallorca holiday after ‘falling asleep while sitting on his hotel balcony’s railing’
• Tourist, 20, dies after falling from his hotel balcony in Spain’s Mallorca: Friends discovered his body at 8am
• German tourist, 23, dies after plunging 12 metres from her hotel balcony in Spain’s Mallorca

SON ESPASES HOSPITAL, PALMASome reports suggested the Brit had taken a cocktail of drugs, namely cocaine and ketamine.



The Palma Policia Local and the Policia Nacional went to the scene along with an ambulance.
Paramedics stabilised the man’s condition as he suffered multiple contusions.
He was then taken to Son Espases Hospital.
The Policia Nacional are investigating what happened but early indications are that nobody else was involved.

https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2024/06/26/british-tourist-is-seriously-injured-after-falling-off-balcony-in-spains-mallorca/

After going viral for being allegedly “wrongly imprisoned” in Thailand, Conor Jevons has been exposed in damning screenshots accusing him of scamming people. An alleged victim has spoken to Bored Pandaand has claimed that Conor was arrested while “high on drugs” after owing him thousands of dollars.
Highlights

• Conor Jevons, who went viral for being allegedly wrongly imprisoned in Thailand, has been accused of scamming.
• Dog breeder Chakkaphat Proms claimed Conor owed him 75,000 THB ($2,045) after failing to pay fully for a puppy.
• Conor was arrested while allegedly high on drugs and was found to have violated his visa terms.

Chakkaphat Proms, who runs the Take A Bull exotic bully kennel in Nakhonphanom, Thailand, claimed he lost 75,000 Thai Baht (THB), around $2,045, after Conor had agreed to pay a 25% deposit to buy one of the breeder’s dogs for a total of THB 100,000 ($2,727).
Upon receiving his puppy on April 28, Conor allegedly withheld the remaining THB 75,000 from Chakkaphat, who, after seven days of constantly begging for his money, went to the local police.
“[The police] didn’t help me,” Chakkaphat told Bored Panda on Wednesday (June 19).
After going viral for being allegedly “wrongly imprisoned” in Thailand, Conor Jevons has been exposed in damning screenshots



Image credits: takeabull_kennel


Image credits: Courtesy of Conor Jevons
The alleged victim recalled: “20 days later, I paid my friend in Samui to report [Conor] to the police, and paid the police to find him and [for my friend to be] my witness.”
Chakkaphat exercised his right to have a friend representing him in the investigation, as Conor was located in Koh Samui, 1,900 kilometers away from his Nakhonphanom home.

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A complaint filed with the Royal Thai police in the Surat Thani province, which Chakkaphat shared on his Instagram page on Saturday (June 15), confirms that the dog breeder had sold a “female blue breed” who was two months old to Conor back in April.
Conor was accused of scamming people



Image credits: takeabull_kennel


Image credits: hugothemicro_
On May 20, police arrested Conor “while he was high on drugs,” as Chakkaphat explained in another Instagram post shared on Saturday.
It is unclear whether Conor was then sentenced to prison specifically on charges related to his alleged scams or any alleged drug possession. However, law enforcement discovered that the accused conman had violated his visa terms in the country.
“He was arrested for evading his visa for 197 days and cheating many people in Thailand,” Chakkaphat claimed.
Alleged victim Chakkaphat Proms spoke to Bored Panda

He further told Bored Panda: “Unfortunately, Thai law could not arrest him anymore.
“They could only send him back to his country.”
According to the dog breeder, Conor returned to the UK on June 11 after scamming a handful of other people who shared their own negative experiences with Chakkaphat — he has exposed those allegations on Instagram.

https://www.boredpanda.com/conor-jev...i-dog-breeder/

One can only marvel at the utter paucity of a life that drives our resident Monkey Boy to post such pap, an existence so impoverished that contributing the equivalent of projectile vomiting to a backwater forum adds substance to his otherwise utterly futile life.

Pitiful, really.

Well said, S.A. !

Thank Keriiiist I'm less than 30% English.

How's your 'partner', Witch ?

^ It would be nice to see some of your trip to Noosa, been many many years since I've been there, cheers.

Originally Posted by DrWilly

The British traveller was believed to be staying at the 5-star Apurva Kempinski hotel in Nusa Dua, considered the island’s most luxurious location, when he decided to put his face in a large metal bowl filled with water and flower petals.


In the viral TikTok, which has amassed more than 33 million views, he could be seen approaching the decorative bowl where the woman filming can be heard saying, “OK put your face in it”.

He grabs either side of the bowl and leans into it before it tips towards him with water gushing all over the floor and on his clothes.
Furious viewers were quick to comment, branding the man’s actions as “stupid” and reaffirming why tourists get a bad rep on the island.
“You come to Bali without bringing your brain? Why do you have to destroy everything in someone else’s country?” one person wrote.
“Omg money can’t buy brains,” said another.

Yeah, right after a Chinese guest took a shit in it too.