Weybridge Wipeout winner conquers big red balls (From Your Local Guardian)

Wipeout winner from Weybridge conquers big red balls

6:47pm Tuesday 4th May 2010 in News By Jonathan Portlock

A 57-year-old truck driver who lives in Weybridge will compete in the grand final of BBC1 show Total Wipeout after he came out on top when he competed against his daughter on the show.

Derek Straun, who recently moved to the Surrey town, made a bet with his daughter Chyna-Rose Monrose, 32, that he could prove men were better than women by beating her in a round of the challenge show, which is filmed in Argentina.

But Mr Straun, who competed under the nickname “Who’s the Daddy”, not only triumphed over his daughter, but also beat all the other contestants on the show, which aired on Saturday, April 24, to bag a £10,000 prize.

The other finalists, including two people in their 20s and a pentathlete, could not get close to his time of one minute and 58 seconds around the huge, inflatable obstacle course which has made the show a cult hit.

He will now compete in the season finale of the show in the next few weeks, where he will once again be up against people more than half his age.

He said: “My daughter thinks I am a male chauvinist pig, so she challenged me to compete against her in the show - but now I’m the oldest person to have won Total Wipeout. I am very proud of myself.”

His daughter, who lives in Campbell Road and runs the Booty Fit training course, admitted her father had done well, but said he had yet to convince her of the dominance of the male species.

She said: “It will take more than winning Total Wipeout to prove to me men are better than women. That was just one challenge - we will need to have at least another 15 of them.

“He was really good, but he did have really good training behind him. I’m looking forward to seeing how he does in the grand final.”