Best friends Alfie and Owen have been crowned the winners of Race Across The World 2024, becoming the youngest pair to ever win the competition. The 20-year-old football referee and trainee pilot completed the 15,000km race across eastern Asia without flights or phones, securing the £20,000 prize.
The duo, who were the favourites going into the final leg, travelled from northernmost Japan to the Indonesian island of Lombok. They arrived at the final checkpoint on Gili Meno after sprinting along a beach and into tropical waters, opening the guest book to discover they had finished first. Alfie described it as the “best moment” of their lives, while Owen exclaimed, “We came, and we saw, and we succeeded.”
Mother and daughter Eugenie and Isabel came second, arriving eight minutes behind the winners. Brother and sister James and Betty finished third, 24 hours and 34 minutes later, while married couple Stephen and Viv came fourth, 30 hours and 20 minutes behind. Eugenie said of the winners, “If we were to lose to anybody, we always said that we would want to lose to Alfie and Owen.”
The final leg saw Alfie and Owen start with a 12-minute lead from Jakarta, Indonesia, but a delay waiting for a boat to Gili Meno allowed Eugenie and Isabel to catch up. Despite the setback, the friends remained calm and navigated without a compass to reach the finish line. The series spanned 50 days, crossing six seas and eight borders.
A reunion special will air on BBC One at 10.40pm on Wednesday May 29.
