Preview of Najee Richardson’s run teases a brutal Finals course

American Ninja Warrior just released a first look of Najee Richardson’s Finals run.

Holy smokes. This course is brutal!

Najee quickly bounds through the first few obstacles, but then faces a new contraption, the Falling Shelves. He must leap from tiny ledges to the next X, but as he grabs on, they fall into place with a jolt. The last X includes a blind grab.

Najee, who’s enjoying quite a comeback season, almost goes out right there when one hand misses that grab. He pulls off an impressive save, but we have a feeling that obstacle will do some damage to other competitors.

Moving through the course, we see that Spin Hopper has returned. On the back half, Najee makes short work of the Salmon Ladder before diving into Slam Dunk, another returning obstacle.

But then there’s the ninth obstacle, Dragonback. This thing looks incredibly unpredictable. The Ninjas must hop a bar up the Dragonback, then slide down to a bungee cord landing. Then they have to do it all again. Najee decides to take a risk to avoid a risk. Instead of sliding down the first drop, he LEAPS the bar directly to bungee cords and somehow survives. While he’s doing this, Matt Iseman mentions that no one has defeated the obstacle yet...

The video cuts off before we see if Najee finishes the Dragonback. We’ll have to wait until night one of the Finals to see if he makes it. American Ninja Warrior airs Wednesdays at 9pm EST/PST on NBC!