Daniel Gil looks to be on the path to surpassing last year’s performance

Daniel Gil is well on his way to matching, or even beating his performance from season eight of American Ninja Warrior. Last year, only Daniel and Drew Drechsel moved on to Stage Three of the National Finals. Daniel went out on the Ultimate Cliffhanger, but it was still an incredible performance.

In season nine, Daniel dominated the San Antonio course. He was the fastest finisher in Qualifying and the only finisher of the City Finals. Back on Stage One of the National Finals, it looks like he’s poised to keep mowing these courses down!

Like always, Daniel was smiling and calm during his run. There was a good chance he could out-pace Lance Pekus, who had been the fastest finisher to that point.

Daniel gave us a little bit of a scare on Parkour Run. His leap to the rope went perfectly.

But he came in low on the landing platform and hit it with his hips, stumbling. Luckily, it was a tiny error for Daniel. He quickly corrected and moved on.

Before the Domino Pipes, Daniel stopped to visualize his steps. This is a tactic a lot of Ninjas have employed over the season.

After he breezed through those, Daniel was on to the Flying Squirrel.

His last lache put him high up on the cargo net, leaving him in a great position to finish the course quickly.

Daniel beat Lance’s time by two seconds and earned the fastest completion to that point. While he wouldn’t hold the title for too long (Josh Salinas and Drew Drechsel put up faster times), the fantastic run sent Daniel on to Stage Two!

Daniel can try for the fastest run again on September 18 when we see him on the next stage of the National Finals!