Young ninja warrior to represent Australia

Grace Lutheran College’s Taylah Heit has qualified for the Australian Ninja Games and will be travelling to California in July to represent Australia in the Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association (UNAA) World Championships.

The Year 9 pupil first started her journey in ninja warrior athletics two years ago after doing some ninja obstacles at a gym in Brisbane.

“I was doing some ninja obstacles, and the head ninja coach of the gym came up to me and asked if I did ninja warrior,” Taylah says.

“I said no, and he said that I am pretty good at it and should start training for it. From then, I moved to a competitive ninja warrior gym, close to home, ‘Mr Ninja HQ.’

“I started training in the squad team and competing in local events, after that I started national events which had then qualified me for the world championships.”

Taylah says she was inspired to try out for the Australian Ninja Games after competing locally.

The young ninja warrior first competed and came seventh place in nationals, which was only two places away from qualifying for the world championships.

“The next year I started training very hard because I really wanted to go to the world championships,” she says.

“I went to another qualifier and qualified for the nationals in Perth. I attended the nationals and earned myself second place. This was such an amazing achievement for me and qualified me for the world championships.”

Taylah worked hard for this accomplishment, even mending a broken wrist one week before nationals.

“I had surgery to repair my wrist and I was in a cast for six weeks. Once my cast came off, I did lots of physio so that I could try and get my wrist better for the nationals in Perth, but we were unsure if I would be able to compete,” Taylah explains.

“One week before the nationals, my surgeon gave me full clearance to start training. This was amazing news, but I only had one week to train for the nationals. I trained every single day, and I don’t think I had ever worked harder.”

Taylah says she’s “very excited” to compete in the world championships.

“Going to America is a big opportunity and it’s amazing that I can compete in every event they offer as this will mean more races for me to compete in whilst trying to achieve my goal,” she says.

When asked what advice she would give to other young athletes out there, Taylah says: “I would say to just go out, do it and have fun. Ninja warrior is a great way to build strength, stay fit and the ninja community is the best, everyone is so supportive of one another.”