Who are Puja and Roshni? Meet Race Across the World 2026 contestants

As Race Across the World makes a return to TV screens tonight, viewers will be introduced to five intrepid duos as they embark on a journey of a lifetime.

Among the teams are cousins Puja and Roshni, who admit the race has strengthened their relationship in ways they hadn't expected.

"This has definitely strengthened us. We found out a lot about each other in ways that you wouldn’t unless you’re living with someone," Roshni told Radio Times.

Tonight Puja and Roshni, along with the other contestants, find themselves in Palermo on the island of Sicily, as they learn of their first checkpoint: Fiskardo on the island of Kefalonia.

How to get there? Well, audiences will have to tune in tonight to find out – but in the meantime, why not get to know more about the duo taking part in Race Across the World 2026.

Who are Puja and Roshni?

Relationship: Cousins

Puja, 31, and her cousin Roshni, 32 are from London who have spent their 20s building successful careers as a doctor and software engineer respectively, and found themselves putting their wanderlust on hold.

Heading into the race, the cousins were both worried about completely different things, with Roshni worried about food, especially given they are both vegetarian.

"I feel like we knew that there were sacrifices that we had to make during this whole expedition of ours," Roshni told Radio Times.

As for Puja, her biggest worry was running out of toiletries, adding: "I realised as we went on it was one of my biggest fears and then having to use our budget to buy deodorant I think would have made me cry."

Why did Puja and Roshni sign up for Race Across the World?

Puja had originally signed up for the show a few years ago with a friend, but was then advised to do it with someone she'd known for a long time and so reapplied with Roshni.

Roshni wasn't too keen to begin with, telling Radio Times: "It was a few months after we’d both just gotten married and I was house hunting and trying to be an adult and leaving work for three months didn’t sound like the smartest decision.

"But I was with my husband and he saw Puja’s message and he was like, 'Are you stupid? Call her back!'"

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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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