Race Across the World reaches its high-stakes finale tonight (Thursday 21st May), as the remaining teams make one last push across Mongolia.
Among the pairs still in the running are siblings Katie and Harrison, who have already achieved what they set out to do by making it to the final checkpoint.
“Honestly, I’m just so happy that we have made it to Mongolia, and it looks like we’re probably going to make it to the final checkpoint,” Katie said. “That was our goal going into it, just make it to the end. Obviously, the win would be an added bonus, but the goal was just to get to Mongolia, and we’ve done that.”
Harrison added: “We said at the beginning we wanted to win a leg, and we wanted to get to the end in Mongolia, and we’re on our way to do what we set out to achieve.”
As the race reaches its conclusion, scroll on to learn more about Race Across the World contestants Katie and Harrison.
Who are Katie and Harrison?
Relationship: Siblings
Katie, 21, and Harrison, 23, are inseparable siblings – and Race Across the World has brought them even closer.
“We’re still the same old siblings,” Harrison said. “We still take the mick out of each other, as that’s our dynamic but we probably have a little bit of a deeper understanding of each other.
“I would say we are still the same 99 per cent of the time because we’re best mates, and that is why we’re best mates, because of our already existing relationship.”
Katie agreed, saying that their shared experience had strengthened their bond in a way few people could fully understand.
“Because now we’ve got this shared experience that almost no one in the world understands, it does bring you even closer,” she said. “But as Harrison said, we’re still great mates, and we can maybe have more serious conversations with each other, but most of it is still mickey-taking.”
Their biggest challenge has been the exhaustion of the race, particularly as they reached Mongolia.
“I think it’s the constant being on the go, and the constant feeling of being lost and how tiring that actually is,” Harrison said. “You would have to talk to people to find your way out and the language barrier can be so intense.”
Katie added: “For me, it’s the tiredness, which is driven by the constant go, go, go. Arriving in Mongolia, we’ve struggled with the lack of transport, which means you’ve got so much more to think about, and everything seems like more of a risk because of the lack of options available.”
Could Katie and Harrison win Race Across the World?
They are certainly not ruling themselves out – though Katie believes both Jo and Kush and Andrew and Molly pose a major threat.
“It’s between Molly and Andrew, and Jo and Kush,” she said. “Jo and Kush have real resilience and drive to win, but Molly and Andrew, we think, have a lot of money.
“We’ve learnt that taxis and hitchhikes in Mongolia cost a lot of money, and you need money in Mongolia for transport, and they’ve definitely got it. We don’t know how much Jo and Kush have. They’re both a big threat, but they’ve both got different strengths going into the final leg.”
Harrison agreed, saying Jo and Kush appear to want the win the most, but Andrew and Molly are also “desperate to get their names at the top of the book for the first time”.
As for what winning would mean, Katie said she would love to see Harrison take the crown after how hard he has worked throughout the race.
“I have just loved the whole experience, and I would be happy to just get to the final checkpoint, but I want to win for Harrison, because he deserves that,” she said.
Harrison added: “I’d love to win. It’s not for the prize money but it’s for the fact that you can say you’ve won the race. I guess it’s just a personal pride thing. We’ve already sort of won 50% of it on a leg-by-leg basis, so it would be nice to crown it off with the overall win.”
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Race Across the World returns on Thursday 2 April at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Seasons 1-5 are available to watch on iPlayer.
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