GWR: I encountered some unfortunate events- Seidu Rafiwu

Guinness World Record (GWR) hopeful Seidu Rafiwu, who recently completed the longest distance covered by an individual on foot, has opened up about the obstacles he faced before commencing his record attempt.

Sharing insights into the challenges he encountered prior to embarking on his attempt, Rafiwu revealed that just a day before his scheduled departure, a motorbike he had borrowed was stolen, adding an unexpected setback to his preparations.

Compounding his troubles, Rafiwu’s mobile phone, which was intended to track his record attempt and housed crucial GWR details, malfunctioned after sustaining damage from a fall,

“A day to the record attempt, some unfortunate events happened to me. I had gone to take my friend’s motorbike for some rounds and went to park the motorbike and after climbing upstairs to our storey-building and returning, someone had come to steal the motorbike.

“The morning of the day to start the record attempt, I was holding my phone, all of a sudden it just fell down and the screen did not function anymore. It was the same phone we were going to use to track the record attempt,” Rafiwu narrated in an interview on Onua Maakye, Friday, May 3.

Inshurat Abubakar, a member of Rafiwu’s team, mentioned that they encountered an unexpected issue with the app designed to track Rafiwu’s progress.

As a result, they had to quickly switch to a new phone, causing a delay of two hours in starting their record attempt, which was initially planned for 7 am on April 27.

Despite this setback, Seidu Rafiwu successfully completed his attempt to break the record for the longest distance covered by foot.

He began his journey on Saturday, April 27, walking from Techiman to Accra, and finished the 383 km journey in 96 hours, on Tuesday, April 30.

Rafiwu’s achievement surpassed the previous walking marathon record held by America’s Jesse Casteneda, who walked 228.930 kilometers in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, in September 1976.