Worthing's hardest geezer named one of the most loved runners on social media

A new study by the running experts at SportsShoes.com has revealed which British running influencers are the most loved on social media and Russ Cook ranks third overall.

A spokesperson for SportsShoes.com said: “The ultramarathon runner, also known as ‘Hardest Geezer’ is about to achieve a remarkable feat: running the entire length of Africa and thousands of people follow his journey on Instagram.

"To find out which running influencers are the most engaging, SportsShoes.com looked at the UK’s most famous running influencers, analysing their followers, average likes per post and number of posts for Instagram and for TikTok, looked at their followers, number of videos and total likes on the platform.

"This research is part of the new SportsShoes.com Running Report, which uncovers the top trends across the running industry.”

The top five most loved running influencers on Instagram were:

1. Mary McCarthy (marymccarths) with an influencing score of 15.63
2. Joshua Patterson (joshuapatterson_jp) with an influencing score of 9.68
3. Russ Cook (hardestgeezer) with an influencing score of 8.23
4. Emma Kirk-Odunubi (emmakirkyo) with an influencing score of 8.12

5. Emma Mailer (em_fitx) with an influencing score of 7.38

With under a week left until the finish line, Russ has run more than 13,000 kilometres and raised over £381,000 for charity. This is far from his first mind blowing athletic feat, but it is the one that has captured the public’s imagination – and we think he should be a shoe in for The BBC Sports Personality of the Year.