After a very surprising start, the National Ninja League has closed out its World Championships. The newly-named 2019 Pro Division champions are two athletes American Ninja Warrior fans are quite familiar with: Adam Rayl and Jesse Labreck.
Only seven competitors advanced to Stage Two in the Pro Division, with Flip Rodriguez in first place at the time. There, Flip fell after the second obstacle. Adam Rayl claimed the championship by becoming the only competitor to clear the stage. To illustrate how impressive that is, think about this: Adam took first place by clearing eight obstacles. The Ninja who took second place, Matt Strollo, completed three. Adam cleared the second stage with a time of 04:45.80.
While the championship title was already his, Adam went on to Stage Three. There, he ended his run on the third obstacle.
Jesse Labreck claimed the Pro Division championship title for the women. She was out on the third obstacle on the first stage. Her time of 00:21.26 put her at the top of the pack.
(Casey Rothschild, who shared this Instagram post, placed second on the women’s podium.)
This wasn’t Jesse’s first time on the NNL Championship podium. She actually was the first ever women’s champion back in the first season of the NNL, alongside Geoff Britten. This happened just before Jesse was introduced to the American Ninja Warrior audience in season eight.
It’s also not the first time that Adam and Jesse have been champions together. They were the Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association champions in 2017.
All the Ninjas who took on the National Ninja League World Championships had to put it all on the line. They faced clearly merciless courses and we applaud all the effort they put in just to reach this point!
Men’s Pro Division - Top three
- Adam Rayl
- Matt Strollo
- Caleb Bergstrom
Women’s Pro Division - Top three
- Jesse Labreck
- Casey Rothschild
- Tegan Roobol
You can review the full results of the competition here.