When Ed Stafford proposed becoming the first person to walk the 4,000-mile length of the Amazon from source to sea, he was roundly dismissed. Fixers in Brazil said the experienced trekker would probably die and refused to have anything to do with him. The expedition community said it was too far: that he would get ill or that the dense forest, biting insects, snakes, bogs, jaguars and fearful tribes would be too much.

As the holiday period draws to a chilly close, thousands of Britons will be lacing up their trainers and taking to the streets to run off that festive excess. But among them will be a growing number of runners who are abandoning shoes altogether. Barefoot running is not new. It is nearly 50 years since the Ethiopian Olympic gold medallist Abebe Bikila won his first marathon, barefoot (in a world record time of 2hrs 15 mins 17 secs), and 25 years since Zola Budd stole the headlines as she took to the track barefooted.

KLAGENFURT: Fearless Croatia pulled off a memorable 2-1 win over Group B favourites Germany on Thursday to move to the brink of a place in the Euro 2008 quarter-finals. Darijo Srna beat Marcell Jansen to poke home a curling cross from the left by Danijel Pranjic in the first half and Ivica Olic tapped the ball in early in the second period after a centre by Ivan Rakitic had struck Lukas Podolski and a post.