You’ll never guess the ages of the Race Across the World series three cast

After seven legs of hitching (lots and lots of) lifts, taking buses and trains all over Canada, the final of Race Across the World takes place tonight.

Leaving from Liverpool in Nova Scotia, Zainib and Mobeen hold a 14-hour lead over their nearest rivals, Tricia and Cathie. Just behind them are Monique and Ladi, 17 and a half hours behind the race leaders but with the largest portion of their budget left to spend.

Despite seeing them on our screens since mid-March and feeling like we know the contestants, it’s easy to forget how old they all are. Whilst this series has lacked younger contestants like we’ve seen in previous series, the beauty of the show is that it’s one of the only reality TV programmes that has a really diverse age range.

Race Across the World is for anybody. Jamiul was 25 years old when he won the second series with his uncle, 36 years younger than the previous year’s winners, Tony and Elaine who were in their early 60s. To prove age won’t be a factor when it comes to tonight’s winners, here are all the ages of the Race Across the World series three cast:

Monique

Age: 25

Monique is this year’s youngest contestant. Travelling with her dad, Ladi, he admitted she’s had a “princess” lifestyle so far growing up in East London.

Throughout the series we’ve watched her develop and grow as a person. It’s easy to forget in the first episode when she stood looking bemused at her dad questioning why he was helping to clean the bus of a friendly bus-driver.

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“Am I missing something?” she said at the time. “Why are we washing a bus? Why are we doing that? It seems logical that we do that in exchange for a lift but instead dad’s just working for the ‘shits and gigs’.

“There’s no incentive because there’s no reward.”

She’s almost unrecognisable from the first two episodes. In charge of managing the team’s finances, Monique and Ladi now have the most money of any of the contestants left to spend on the last leg in a bid to pulling off a shock-win.

Claudia

Age: 27

Claudia and Kevin’s relationship is difficult. If you look at any online commentary of the series, they stand out as fans’ least-favourite pairing. However, if you like Race Across the World because the programme is believable and more real than any other reality TV programme, Kevin and Claudia’s dysfunctional and damaged relationship is testament to that.

Having said that, it’s clear it’s played a part in her maturity. She’s 27 years old? 27!!

Mobeen

Age: 31

One year younger than his wife, Zainib, NHS doctor Mobeen is 31-years-old. Describing their relationship when they met at university, Mobeen said he always looked up to Zainib who was a year ahead in her medicine degree at Glasgow University.

Zainib

Age: 32

Zainib and Mobeen have the shortest age gap between any of the pairings and it might indicate why they hold such an impressive lead going into the final leg.

The largest age gap between any winners was 10 years when 35-year-old Emon won with his 25-year-old nephew Jamiul. Before that, Tony and Elaine were both 61 years old.

Michael

Age: 34

Brothers Michael and Marc took part in Race Across the World in a bid to get closer as siblings. “I think the gap came when you went to uni,” older brother Marc explained.

Michael said: “Around the year of when I came out, and then when dad died, and then I went to uni – we didn’t know how to support each other with all those things going on at a similar time.

34-year-old Michael and his brother only lasted until the third episode as they struggled to adapt to asking strangers for lifts and fell far behind.

Marc

Age: 36

Two years ago, 36-year-old Marc moved back in with his mum. “I just feel stuck at the minute,” he admitted ahead of going on the trip.

“I’m hoping doing this will give me that kick up the backside to make me want to try and do new things, to try new things.” By the end of the third episode, despite being 800 kilometres away from the checkpoint, Marc had begun to push himself but they ran out of time and were eliminated from the race.

Tricia

Age: 48

Tricia has been best friends with Cathie since they first met at school aged 13. She said she couldn’t imagine doing the trip with anybody else.

“We’ve done a lot of crazy stuff together. I think because we know each other inside and out. We just had to look at each other the other day and both knew exactly what we were thinking,” she said.

The pair have won praise for representing women in their late 40s and appeared on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour to discuss the lack of representation in the media.

Cathie

Age: 49

Cathie is a few months older than Tricia. Describing the first day they met at school, she said: “I was really worried about that first day in the the new school because I’d been bullied previously. I didn’t know whether I would make friends and I remember I went back home, and I just burst into tears, and my dad was mortified and he was like, ‘What’s the matter? What’s the matter?’ and I said ‘I had a really nice day’.”

Ladi

Age: 52

Second oldest contestant, Ladi has been put through his paces by his 25-year-old daughter. Always seen with a smile on his face and enthusiastic to speak to people, you rarely notice Ladi is the second oldest contestant until it comes to running the final stretch to reach a checkpoint when Monique pulls away.

17 and a half hours behind Zainib and Mobeen, if they are going to have any chance of winning tonight, they’ll need to be more than just quick at sprinting the last 200 metres.

Kevin

Age: 53

Kevin is this year’s oldest contestant and the sixth oldest to ever appear on the show.

He’s said he’s been told by his mates it’s time for him to grow up, but believes “in my head I’m still 25 years old”. It’s both endearing and frustrating in equal measure. His energy levels have never faltered on the show, he never stands out as the oldest contestant and yet isn’t it obvious, Claudia is crying out for a dad and not a 25-year-old mate.

All episodes of Race Across The World are currently available on iPlayer. For all the latest reality TV and entertainment news and gossip, like Pop Culture Shrine on Facebook. 

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Featured image via BBC