Fans of Ninja Warrior have been left amazed by the show's first ever blind contestant. During this evening's episode Paralympian Dan Powell took on the course despite the fact that he has no central vision.
That means that he is always trying to rely on the vision that he gets in his peripherals, which can't be helpful for him trying to get around a notoriously difficult obstacle course.
Appearing with his guide dog, Elmo, he spoke with host Rochelle Humes before he attempted the course and explained what his disability means.
The hosts of the show, Chris Kamara and Ben Shepherd showed on the TV screen exactly how much vision Dan has.
The studio audience were blown away by him and gave him a standing ovation as well as cheering his every attempt at an obstacle.
Sure, he didn't get to the end - in fact, he fell at just about the same place that a lot of the contests (including Harry Judd from McFly) ended up crashing out, swinging across a pool of water.
Well, he might not have completed the course, and he might have ended up taking an unexpected dip in the pool, but he certainly won the battle for everyone's hearts. Within seconds there were people queuing up to praise his efforts on social media.
One fan said: "Completely blown away by Dan on #NinjaWarriorUK!! Total respect!!"
Another said: "Dan is an inspiration for even trying to complete the course #NinjaWarriorUK"
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True enough - the course is well hard to begin with, so it takes an amazing amount of bravery to even attempt to complete it without having all of his sight.
Dan actually competed at London 2012 in the Paralympic judo event, but he said that taking on the Ninja Warrior course is even scarier.
Speaking with The Sun he said: Ninja Warrior was a hundred times scarier than competing in London 2012. In London 2012 I knew what I was there to do, I knew what I was going into, I had practised loads.
"The crowd at Ninja Warrior was amazing though, it was just like the Paralympics. It made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck."
He made it through what he could of the course using only his sense of touch and the guidance of crew members - who he said couldn't have been more helpful.
He added: I've got no central sight basically and they were basically saying 'can we make the lighting better? Can we do anything to help you? Can we talk you through it?'
"They gave me a very good description of the obstacles. There's only so much describing you can do though before you physically get on there but at the same time it actually gave me a bit of a fighting chance to give it a go."
And give it a go he did - fair play to the LAD.
Featured Image Credit: ITVTopics: Blind
