Jo Diop and Kush Burman are heading into the final leg of Race Across the World without saying who wins, but they have already made one thing clear: the closing stretch is going to be brutal. Burman said viewers should expect a “high stress, very tense” episode as the pair close in on the end of the series, which sends travellers 12,000km across Europe and Asia with no phones and limited cash.
The friends from Liverpool, both 20, are the youngest duo in the series and have spent the race pushing north toward Mongolia, where the landscape became so vast and difficult that Diop said, “It really is, there’s no roads,” adding, “You might as well just not have the maps.” Burman described the country as “a wild place, Mongolia,” a line that fits a finale in which the prize for the winning pair is £20,000 and every decision can change the result.
Race Across the World is built on endurance as much as navigation, and Jo and Kush have spent the journey finding small ways to breathe between the pressure. Viewers saw them unwind by playing basketball and later spending an evening listening to Mongolian throat singing, moments that stood out in a competition defined by exhaustion, cash limits and constant movement. The route has also taken them to a judo gym in Kazakhstan, where Burman had an emotional reaction that cut through the competition and reminded viewers that the race is never just about getting from one checkpoint to the next.
That moment carried extra weight because of what Burman has lived through away from the cameras. When he was 14, his stepdad Matt took his own life during lockdown. Burman said of the episode, “I really wish I could show him who I am now,” and told Newsbeat that watching the scene back with his family was difficult. He said, “Usually when we talk about my dad it’s in a more light-hearted context of, like, ‘do you remember this?’” but added, “But when it’s talking about the feelings and emotions behind it, it can be quite tough.”
The race has always mixed competition with the kind of personal pressure that can surface only when phones are gone and there is no easy way to look away. For Jo and Kush, that has meant navigating not just the miles across mongolia and the rest of the route, but also the scrutiny that comes with being the youngest pair in the series and one of the most watched. Burman said their own circle has been following closely, even if some of the support has lagged behind the broadcast. “All my mates’ mums, they’re loving it more than my mates are,” he said. “Half my mates, they’re like: ‘I can’t lie, I’ve still got to catch up on the past few episodes, but I’m loving it so far’.”
What happens next is the part the pair are not giving away. They have said the final episode is tense, but not who crosses the line first. In a race where maps may be useless, roads disappear and the margin between victory and defeat can be measured in minutes, that silence may be the loudest sign that the finish really is close.
