Australian Ninja Warrior contestant Le’s ‘devastating’ disqualification

One Ninja Warrior favourite has crashed out of the competition early, leaving the audience in “stunned silence”. WARNING: Spoilers

One of last season’s most accomplished Ninja Warrior contestants crashed out early in a “devastating moment” in this season’s second episode.

Brisbane mechanical engineer Le Hua, 39, made it all the way to the grand final last year.

Crawford says it’s a “devastating moment” for Le. The keen bicycle stuntman said he’d “lived and breathed” Ninja in the past year, building his own obstacles to train.

But barely 90 seconds into his first run, Hua made a game-ending error while dismounting an obstacle: He crashed straight into a pylon, grabbing on to steady himself. It’s right there in the Ninja Warrior rule book: “Ninjas can never use the scaffolding.”

Brushing himself off, he continued on with the course, apparently unaware the dreaded red lights were flashing.

Le jumps down – and straight into a pylon.

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“I don’t think Le realises it, but it is a disqualification. And such a shame because as you can see, he was going to beat the flying shelf grab and go straight up the warped wall,” said host Ben Fordham as Hua continued on the course.

Hosts Shane Crawford and Ben Fordham react.

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Up the warped wall he went, cheering in triumph as he hit the buzzer – only then realising that he’d been disqualified several obstacles earlier.

“This is usually where the fireworks would be going off but the crowd is in stunned silence,” said Fordham, as Hua finally processed his earlier error.

Le thinks he's smashed it – but he's disqualified.

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For a second, he tried to protest, arguing he’d only “bumped” the scaffolding.

“I know – however, unfortunately there are rules and we’ve got to stick to the rules,” said co-host Shane Crawford.

Elsewhere in Monday’s episode, favourites Ben Polson and Olivia Vivian proved once again why they’re Ninja Warrior’s golden couple, finishing as the top two contestants of the episode and then going head to head on the all new ‘Power Tower’ obstacle. It was a photo finish as Polson beat his girlfriend by milliseconds.

Ben and Olivia: Partners and fierce competitors.

Australian Ninja Warrior continues 7:30pm Tuesday on Nine.