NINJA’S BACKYARD COURSE WORTHY OF BLOCK
TRUCKIE turned Australian Ninja Warrior Tom Hazell has spent three years preparing for tonight’s grand final – on a homemade course in his backyard.
The elite obstacle racing dad has used “whatever I can get my hands on” to create his own ninja training course in a shed that takes up 90 per cent of his East Lismore yard.
“I had a bit of it set up before I went on the show because I had it for obstacle racing. Me and my mate built it all here,” he said.
“After being on the show I’ve expanded it a little bit.”
The course includes a peg board, salmon ladder, monkey bars, and a 3m vertical wall.
“I got pool balls and drilled holes in them and fastened hooks in them and hung them up so I hang around on those to practise my grip. Grip strength is 90 per cent of the show,” Hazell said
“I also got a set of bowling pins from an alley and put hooks in them for different strengths, shapes and widths.”
A fan of rock climbing, CrossFit and dirt biking, Hazell, 31, said his “hippy” mum introduced him and sister Jacinda, 28, to obstacle racing when they were kids.
“We grew up living in the bush – Kyogle and Mullumbimby,” he said.
“We moved around a lot. It was bloody good living in the bush with no neighbours. We were always outside.”
Hazell said in some ways, the ninja challenges have proven easier to navigate than an obstacle course.
“In obstacle racing you have a lot of running and terrains to deal with,” he said. “In ninja you have obstacles to overcome but no mud or weather.”
Hazell is one of 21 ninjas through to tonight’s grand final of the maiden series of Australian Ninja Warrior.
He says negotiating the show’s obstacles is nowhere near as easy it looks on TV.
“People don’t realise how hard it is – even myself, watching the other shows from other countries, I was like “I could have done that”,” he said.
“But when I got to the show I realised it’s 1000 times harder than I thought it would be.”