The Capital Weekender presenter will play padel non-stop for 24 hours to raise money for Capital’s official charity, Make Some Noise

Radio host, TV personality and former Love Islander Kem Cetinay is swapping his microphone for a padel bat tomorrow (October 9th) as he takes on a 24-hour padel challenge to raise funds for Capital’s official charity, Make Some Noise.

He will take on a gruelling marathon of matches as he swaps opponents throughout the day and night. The entire event will be streamed live on Capital and Capital’s official app, Global Player, so listeners can follow every rally and cheer him on from start to finish.

We caught up with the Capital Radio host to find out why he was taking on the challenge, what training he’s done to get ready – and what he’s most looking forward to when the 24-hour challenge finally comes to an end!

Men’s Fitness: How are you feeling about the challenge?

Kem Cetinay: I feel good to be honest with you. I’m sure you’ve probably gathered by now, but I absolutely love padel. I’ve been playing just over a year now. I’ve always played sport, but as I’ve got into adult life, I’ve missed that competitive element.

I remember saying to my therapist one day, ‘I don’t have that fitness purpose’ and he said ‘why don’t you get that back inside?’ I felt I was too old to start something new but I just ended up getting into padel when I was in Dubai – and it relit the kid in me. It’s been the best thing I’ve ever done – although it has absolutely destroyed my social life!

MF: How does the challenge work? Do you just take on all-comers all day?

KC: Some people will come to play with me – we’ve got loads of really fun celebrity guests, artists, singers from capital – and we’ve got some of my other friends that will come and play with me. And maybe we’ll put some wages on the line for the charity. I guess it’ll be a mixture. We’ll decide a lot of that on the day, but all that I definitely know is that it will start at 9am tomorrow and I will finish at 9am Friday morning!

MF: How are you planning to manage your nutrition on the day?

KC: We’ve got a couple people that are going to help me with what to eat on the day. But it’s very tough to train for something like this when you’ve never done anything like it before. I’ve never really done sport for longer than four hours. So, it is very much new territory for me, and unfortunately, some of it I’m going to have to learn as I go. But I don’t mind that – that’s what makes it feel like a really tough challenge.

MF: What does your normal fitness routine look like (when you’re not preparing for a 24-hour padel challenge!)?

KC: I try and go to the gym most days, and I mix it up with a with a combination of weight training and cardio. As I’ve got older, I’ve laid off the really heavy weights, as I found that I was picking up a lot of injuries by doing that. I always try and get some cardio into my day. And to be honest with you, a lot of it is because I’ve realised that, when I do cardio or I train, my mind’s in a much better place. Even if I’ve got a really busy week, my priority has got to be training, because if I’m not firing from here [Kem taps his head], then I’m not going to be firing from elsewhere.

MF: Has your learning curve been quite steep with padel?

KC: I think it’s quite an easy sport to learn. I think anyone can learn to play it. With padel, when you get to that intermediate stage when you start getting half decent, it does get quite complicated. Then, to get really good, it is much tougher.

MF: What was your inspiration for the challenge?

KC: It was a mixture really: I wanted to push myself and I really wanted to do something for charity. I’ve only been at Capital 18 months but when I saw their charity – Make Some Noise – I wanted to get involved. I’ve seen firsthand how incredible it is and I wanted to do something to help raise funds. And so the idea for the challenge was born.

• To support Kem Cetinay’s 24-hour Padel Challenge and donate to Capital’s official charity, Make Some Noise, visit capitalfm.com