Sioned Cray of Race Across The World Shares Heartfelt Update and Thanks Fans

A BBC Race Across The World star has shared an emotional post after their recent relationship update – and has been flooded with support from fans.

The travel competition sees five pairs of contestants undertake a cross-continental race – without smartphones, credit cards or air travel and on a limited budget.

Fin Gough, 19, and Sioned Cray, 20, came third in the latest series, with mother and son Caroline and Tom completing the near 9,000-mile route from northern China to southern India first.

On the cast reunion episode last week, the young couple gave a sweet update about their relationship, with Fin saying: “It was a good way to see if we can do it forever or this isn’t for us, let’s split up. But that wasn’t the case, we are still together and we’re going well. I think that was a big challenge and the best challenge we could’ve had together.”

And now, Sioned has spoken out about the show, which finished earlier this month, in an emotional Instagram post – with fans rushing to express their love and support.

Reflecting on the Race: More Than Just Winning

Sioned began her video talking about how it felt to come so close to winning the £20,000 grand prize: “The whole race, it felt like we needed to win. At the end, it admittedly felt disappointing, all because of competitiveness and being desperate to be the best, always.

“However, that being said, after returning, I soon realised that, we were winners regardless. And watching it all back and seeing the growth both for myself and Fin individually as well as together highlighted that for me. The experience as a whole and what we gained from it is the true prize and having the title of being winners would have just been a bonus that’s most definitely not that deep.”

Gratitude for the Journey

Sioned added the couple, both from Carmarthen, Wales, owed a massive thank you to a lot of different people for making the amazing experience happen.

Thanking the Production and Crew

She expressed her gratitude to production company Studio Lambert and everyone part of the process of recruiting and choosing the couple for the show.

And she gave a shoutout to the pair’s camera crew, who travelled with them all of the way and “put up with a whole load of bickering, indecisiveness and just us being annoying teenagers”.

“We shared a load of funny and emotional moments which are now my core memories for life”, Sioned continued. “And even though we desperately wanted them to help at times, and they’d just stand and stare blankly with a zip on their mouths, I’m now so appreciative that’s how it works. Because we wouldn’t have grown the way we have and the experience would have been completely different.”

Sioned thanked all the crew members behind the scenes who viewers do not see on screen, praising their “extraordinary” efforts to make the show happen.

She went on: “We spent two whole months travelling this way, continuously, footage captured for all of it and somehow it’s been cropped to eight hours, it’s mad.”

Appreciation for Fin and Fellow Contestants

“Thank you, obviously, to Fin, for just going on this journey with me. Thank you to the rest of the cast for being so brilliant, most of the time. We now can call them lifelong friends, and yes, we have 60-year-old best friends!”

Messages for the Fans

“And lastly, thank you to everyone, all of you guys, for just giving continuous support since the beginning. It’s been really amazing, so nice, so positive. And yeah, it’s just been so wild, so chaotic, but so fun and so exciting and I can’t wait to see what life offers me next to be honest. I guess we’re on to the next chapter, whatever that may be. Bye for now!”

Fan Support and Future Hopes

Fans rushed to the comments section to express their praise for the young couple:

• “You were both a joy to watch.”
• “You two were brave, determined, focussed and just lovely. You worked well together deciding and solving – loved watching you both.”
• “Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination. You guys were awesome.”

Some even hoped they might see more of the couple on the small screen, with fellow contestant Caroline writing: “That could have been your presenting audition as you nailed it. Born to the job and such lovely sentiments as always, my dear friend.”

Another similarly said: “You two were brilliant and hopefully see you both back on our screens soon!”

Overcoming Challenges and Unexpected Revelations

It follows Fin and Sioned’s admission on the reunion special that despite how positive of a time they had overall, there were some incredibly tough moments too.

Tough Moments in India

Sioned said: “I think there were many times in India where I thought, ‘I can’t do this, I need to go home, not want to but I need to because this is too much’. But I’m really glad I just stuck it out because experiencing it has been really valuable. It’s built us as people. It’s tough doing something like this in a relationship, but I do think it made us stronger.”

Brian and Melvyn’s “Sneaky Tactic” Revealed

Elsewhere in the reunion episode, Fin and Sioned were shocked to hear about a sneaky tactic fellow contestants Brian and Melvyn used to trick the other cast members. Their co-star Letitia – who placed second alongside her sister Elizabeth – pointed out the brothers were always short for cash.

Brian said: “We did tell a few porky pies, didn’t we?”

Melvyn replied: “No, we didn’t!”

Letitia replied: “I think it was when we saw you guys on the luxury bus, we were like, ‘What?!'”

Melvyn told viewers: “The other teams would come into checkpoint and they’d say, ‘Well, how do you think you’re doing?’ And we’d say, ‘God, that was an expensive leg’.”

The pair did not feel bad about it at all as a number of clips of them lying throughout the series were shown. Brian even went on to say that they all did it – but Sioned exclaimed in response: “I didn’t. It was just you!”

A shocked Melvyn asked: “So, we were the only ones who were bulling?”

Brian and Melvyn narrowly missed out on the top spot as they ended up placing fourth. But they did all they could in a bid to be crowned winners of the fifth series of the beloved show.

Where to Watch Race Across The World

Race Across The World is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.