We are normally on our knees when we are most vulnerable: we crawl before we learn to walk and we are on our knees when we pray. But Kobus Swart (33), a lawyer from Benoni, will be crawling in an attempt to break the Guinness Book of Records entry left in 1992 by two Australians, writes Bongani Majola.
Swart will be crawling for a good cause. All money he raises from the attempt at Carnival City, Brakpan, on August 10 will be donated to Hospice East Rand.
His mother recently passed away after suffering from cancer and this motivated Swart to do something for all people with cancer. ”One could die in the process, as crawling affects both your brains and legs. But I like the challenge. And when we pray for patients, we are on our knees.”
The challenge is classified by Guinness World Records as ”the longest continuous voluntary crawl progression with one or other knee in unbroken contact with the ground”. The current record holders crawled 50,6km, covering 115 laps of an athletic track. Swart is aiming to crawl 60km over one and a half days. Is this an impossible dream? ”No,” he says, ”I’m already crawling 5kph!” Photograph: Nadine Hutton