In 2005, Jesper Olsen from Denmark arrived at the Greenwich Mean Time mark in London, England to complete the first fully documented run around the world. His 25000km, 18 month run took him through Scandinavia, Russia, Japan, Australia (where he found time to compete in and win the prestigious Colac 6-day race), Canada and the USA from where he returned to the British Isles to complete his run.

Not content with resting on his laurels, Jesper is now planning another circumnavigation of the globe in 2008 - this time in the north-south direction. His plan is to run from the northernmost point in Europe to the southernmost point in Africa. Then he plans to run from the southernmost point in South America to the nothernmost point in Canada! Put these two runs together and you have a north-south lop of the world. Jesper is a very humble and self-effacing guy and he actually wants to have a team running rather than him taking all the credit. So in 2008 he will be joined by Irish runner Tony Mangan, who holds the world treadmill 48 hour record. Good luck to both of them!

Related links:

- The original world run site

- The site for the North-South Run: still a work in progress!