Team Foucan at Ninja Warrior UK

Can anyone survive the obstacle course and be crowned ‘Ninja Warrior UK’? Well on Tuesday the 15th August, we formed together to support the legendary parkour icon, Sebastien Foucan in his first Audition. And although our lips are sealed on his progress and outcome, what we can say is our overall experience build up before going into the arena.

The show where everyday heroes take on the world’s toughest obstacle course on TV, hosted by Ben Shephard, Chris Kamara and Rochelle Humes for ITV. Ninja Warrior UK is the British version of the Japanese assault course game show Sasuke. The show, which began airing on 11 April 2015.

Photo credit: Kelly Reeves.

Thousands apply, but only a total of 250 contestants begin the first stage of the competition, and attempt to complete six obstacles and hit the button at the end of the course. Some of the obstacles are taken from or based on Sasuke, such as the warped wall or “Quintuple Steps”. The 10 contestants, from each of the 5 qualifying rounds, who make it the furthest the fastest, qualify for the semi-finals, where there are nine obstacles. The top 10 contestants qualify for the final, which is split into four parts. The first part features nine obstacles and is timed; the second part features five obstacles with a strict time limit, and the third part features three untimed obstacles. Lastly, contestants must climb “Mount Midoriyama” with a 70 feet (21 m) rope.

We turned out in great numbers to support Sebastien and the energy he brought to the day was infectious. From going live via his Facebook profile with his mindset and excitement on attending the course, to mingling with other contestants and how they felt about taking on the course. Alot of the ‘Team Foucan’ crowd were of course nervous for Seb, since being a founder of the parkour sport adds that little extra pressure to complete the rounds in not only a quick time but also in an impressive style.

The show won’t be aired until Jan 2018, so until then – our very own superhero quest won’t be known! What we can say is nobody is more prouder than his family and friends who were there to support Seb to the max.