Race Across The World contestants revealed as series returns

4 April 2024, 16:13

Who are the five pairs taking part in Race Across The World? Here is everything you need to know about the 2024 contestants.

Race Across The World will be back on our screens very soon as we watch five pairs travel from Japan to Lombok in the adventure of a lifetime.

Returning on the 10th of April on BBC One, the teams will embark on a 15,000km journey across Asia in a race to win the £20,000 cash jackpot.

Alfie and Owen, Stephen and Viv, Betty and James, Eugenie and Isabel, and Sharon and Brydie are the ten contestants taking part in this exciting trip, so lets get to know them a bit more.

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Who is on Race Across The World? It's time to meet the cast!

Race Across The World contestants

Alfie and Owen

Best friends trainee pilot Alfie, 20, and football referee Owen, 20, are one of the pairs taking part in Race Across The World this year.

When asked why they wanted to take part in the series, Alfie said: "I think we wanted to take part in the series mainly because we’re both lovers of travelling and have done a little bit of travelling before but never done the whole backpacking, country-hopping situation.

"It was something that we wanted to try further down the line anyway and we thought it would be such a great experience that it would be impossible to say no to."

Owen added: "We wanted to do this because, as Alfie said, we wanted to go travelling and we’ve never done this sort of thing together. Also, we wanted to put our friendship to the test, see what we can achieve with it.

"And personally, ourselves we wanted to see how we’d deal in this sort of situation and how well we can do, see if we can make it to the end and maybe even win."

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Stephen and Viv

Couple Stephen, 61, and Viv, 65, are the next contestants hoping to win Race Across The World.

When asked about their strengths and weaknesses, Stephen said: "Obviously our age, but in a lot of ways we think that might be a strength as well, we’re sort of perhaps less imposing then some of the youngsters, less threatening than perhaps some of the youngsters might be by approaching strangers, we’re not a threat to anybody. But, certainly, it’s literally the same thing as a weakness, we’re not going to beat anyone in a footrace that’s for sure.

He continued: "We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t want to win it. But it doesn’t matter either, we’ve seen the show, the success the failures and the taking part.

"We want to finish, to finish is important to us, we’d just be embarrassed to go home early, the kids would never live it down, it would just be awful, they’d just mock us mercilessly. Yes, of course we want to win, who wouldn’t. We’ll just do everything we can, within the rules, to make that happen."

Betty and James

Sister and brother duo social media and events manager Betty, 25, and sales consultant James, 21, are looking to bag the cash jackpot.

When asked why they wanted to take part in the series, Betty said: "It’s a TV programme that we watch as a family, and I think during series one and two we were sat there like 'we could definitely do this.'

"It got to the last week we could apply, and we thought “let's just go for it.” We did the audition video very on a whim and filled out the form and here we are.I think it was kind of my idea, I got the application thing going and James got dragged along for the journey."

James added: "You said a few times, there’s other people you should’ve taken but they’re not here or couldn’t do it!"

Eugenie and Isabel

Mother-daughter pair 60-year-old teacher Eugenie and trainee clinical scientist Isabel, 25, are the next twosome in this season of Race Across The World.

When asked what tips they picked up for previous iterations of the show, Isabel said: "Change the time on your watch according to where you are so you don’t miss anything, so we did that as soon as we got here. That’s our plan, we checked the time and changed our watches. What else? A notepad and pen."

Eugenie concurred: "Yes, a notepad and pen, we’ve each got one. We’re going to use it to diary as well, and for planning, Isabel’s a planner. Travelling at night too to save a bit of time."

Sharon and Brydie

Another mother-daughter pairing is 52-year-old cleaner Sharon and 25-year-old snowboard instructor Brydie.

The two were quizzed on what they believe their biggest challenges would be, Brydie said: "Geography and directions. We’re not very good at naming capital cities."

Sharon added: "In fact, how embarrassing was this? I don’t know if I should confess this but when we were told we were going to Tokyo, I thought that was a country in itself! So, yes, I hope we don’t come across really stupid. But it’s all about education, everything’s a learning curve."

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