New line-up as Ireland's Fittest Family is back on box... so who is flying the flag for Cork?

AFTER a successful career in the ultra-competitive world of horse racing, Nina Carbery knows what to takes to be a winner.

The retired jockey will be bringing that desire to the new series of Ireland’s Fittest Family on RTÉ1 tomorrow at 6.30pm, when she takes on the role of coach.

Nina, 38, of Meath, is replacing Cork woman Derval O’Rourke for the tenth series of the popular show, after the former athlete announced “something had to give” due to her commitments, including her flourishing business and her career as a pundit.

However, Nina will still have to face down two more uber-competitive Cork sportspeople in the series, in the shape of fellow coaches Anna Geary and Donncha O’Callaghan, as well as GAA legend Davy Fitzgerald.

In the new series, presenter Mairead Ronan (pictured on TV Week cover) is back on the hunt to find the nation’s Fittest Family. whom the coaches will push to their limits. The winners get the coveted title and €15,000

In the first episode, Anna mentors the Fitzsimons from Wicklow, Donncha has the Gallaghers from Laois, Nina takes on the Finnegans from Meath, and Davy minds the Dorans from Wexford.

The families will take on ‘The Lake’, all battling it out for two places at the next round of the competition at ‘The Forest’.

The families must each take on a brand-new event, ‘High and Dry’. One member of each family must take to the skies and hang on to two gymnastic rings, suspended from a crane high above the icy waters of The Lake, while the rest of the family run shuttles across slippery pontoons floating on the water.

The most runs completed wins, and the clock stops when the family member on the rings loses their grip and plunges into the Lake.

The four families then have their stamina tested in another new event, ‘Raft Rage’. The teams pull themselves across the lake using a rope and a raft – but only two can be on the raft at once. It’s a test of grit and stamina and is bound to become a firm Fittest Family favourite.

With the scores of the first two events are combined, the winning family goes through to the next round, and the family at the bottom are sent home.

Then the other two face Ireland’s Fittest Family’s first ever Water Eliminator.

Camogie legend Anna Geary is feeling smug after last year’s victory, when she became the first coach in Fittest Family history to win three times. The other three coaches will be working hard to prevent her winning again.