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Radio star Scott Mills has said he is “speechless” after winning the BBC’s Celebrity Race Across The World alongside his husband Sam Vaughan.
The pair beat Ted Lasso actor Kola Bokinni and his cousin Mary Ellen Moriarty to the base camp of the Osorno Volcano in Frutillar, Chile, after racing almost 7,800 miles from the Amazon Rainforest.
Broadcaster Jeff Brazier and his son Freddy, and model Kelly Brook and her husband Jeremy Parisi finished the race the day after, coming third and fourth respectively.
Mills and Vaughan realised they had won when they opened the guest book in Frutillar, leading them to jump up and down and shout “oh my god, we did it”.
Speaking of the victory, Mills said: “Speechless, when you open that book, and there are no other names in it – there’s no other feeling like it.
“I can confirm it’s the best feeling ever.
“It’s been exhilarating, it’s been tough, it’s been so frustrating at times, but we’ve been there for each other, the good, the bad, the ups and downs.
“It just proves we’re a great team – a winning team.”
The pair began the final leg in third place – but with just 39 minutes between the teams, the competition was wide open.
They decided to toss a coin to decide which route they would travel across the Andes to reach the finish line, with tails making them continue down through Argentina to San Salvador, and onwards to Mendoza.
Vaughan, who works as a producer, added: “I’m just glad we flipped the coin.
“To have a great experience and win, it’s just the best.”
During a ride in a cable car up San Cristobal Hill in Chile, Mills told Vaughan, who was his fiance at the time, that he had been “quite caught up with work” at the start of the show and had now “learned to spend more time for just you and me”, before adding “I don’t want it to be over now”.
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Following Mills and Vaughan to the guest book, Bokinni and Moriarty said they were “pleased” to come second.
Reaching the top of the volcano, Bokinni said: “We came second Mary, I’m so pleased with that, this has been one of the best experiences of my life.”
Following up in third alongside his father, Freddy Brazier said: “We didn’t come first, we didn’t need to come first.
“We finished the race and we’ve done it together, father and son, I mean what a duo.”
Brook, who finished in fourth place with her husband, added: “It means everything to finish, Jeremy wanted to win, I just wanted to finish.
“To be honest we came last so I feel like we should have had a jolly from day one, it wouldn’t have made any difference.”
Stripped of all mod-cons and luxuries including smartphones and bank cards, competitors had to rely on their skills, hard work and the kindness of strangers to succeed with a limited budget.
The journey saw the pairs race across the length of South America, through the likes of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.
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