The Race Across the World season six final arrives tonight, and one pair will be crowned winners and take home the £20,000 prize fund after eight weeks crossing Europe and Asia on a route that ended in northern Mongolia. Jo and Kush, the youngest pairing in the race, go into the finale as the current favourites to win.
Kush was 19 when filming took place, and the pair have spent the months since then turning the show into a second run of publicity. They appeared on a number of TV shows talking about their experience and attended a launch party in April earlier this year. Kush has also been working on his own music and is planning to release the song Blue very soon. Jo, meanwhile, went travelling again with a trip to Gambia earlier in the year.
The race was filmed last year, so the story viewers are watching now has already been decided. What remains unknown until tonight is whether Jo and Kush can finish off the run that has made them the team to beat. In second place are Andrew and Molly, the father-and-daughter duo from Northern Ireland, who were also busy after filming ended: they appeared on Morning Live at the start of May, and a few weeks ago they attended a meet-up in Manchester. Molly also went to a JLS concert and explored Ireland.
Katie and Harrison sit in third place, keeping the pressure on the teams ahead of them. Since filming, they have packed in a trip to Croatia and Slovenia in May, visiting Plitvice Lakes National Park, Zagreb and Lake Bled. Katie, who celebrated her 22nd birthday, also appeared on Breakfast in an interview, while Harrison ran the Manchester marathon in April. The pair spent Easter with their family in Wales, another reminder that life has moved on even if the race has not.
Mark and Margo are in fourth place, and Puja and Roshni were eliminated in episode three after being the last pair to make it to the checkpoint. Their exit came early, but they still continued travelling after the race, with a quick trip to Amsterdam and a longer journey around Vietnam that began in April. Margo also celebrated her 60th birthday after filming ended.
That split between what happened on screen and what the cast did afterward is what gives the finale its shape. The race followed five pairs across two continents and has now narrowed to one last sprint to the finish. Tonight, the only question left with any weight is whether the favourites hold on, or whether Andrew and Molly, Katie and Harrison, or Mark and Margo can still force a different ending in northern Mongolia.
