Brian Caputo – Staff Photographer
On Friday, April 17, the University tried to find their own Ninja warriors among its student body. This past Friday, URTV hosted an event co-sponsored by WRUR and UR Rock Climbing Club called “UR Ninja Warrior.” The event featured an obstacle course that students could run through, with the top three winners receiving gift cards of varying values and medals.
“The inspiration is based on American Ninja Warrior, which is a TV show that, I think, started six years ago. It was actually based on another TV show, Sasuke, which is the Japanese Ninja Warrior, which is like 1990. We watched American Ninja Warrior in September. I was a big fan for many years and I got the whole hall to watch it. I have always loved it and I thought we should do a Rochester version of it,” freshman Thomas Pinella said, one of the organizers for the event and designer of the the obstacle course.
Sasuke features contestants trying to compete against each other to finish an obstacle course with four difficult stages on Mount Fujiyama.
This event was designed to test the student’s body, mind and spirit by the horrors of Mt. Goergen, and the two event creators, Pinella and freshman Brian Caputo, said that the event was a great success.
Pinella describes the process of putting the event together. “First thing we knew [was that] we wanted it in the Goergen Field House, so we reserved that place,” he said.
“It just so happened that I was in contact with Kristine Shanley, who is the Associate Director of the Field House.So, I reached out to her and told her about the idea, and she [happened] to be a fan herself of American Ninja Warrior, so she was on board immediately. And from there, we kind of put everything together.”
With 30 people initially registering for the event and some more walking on the day of the event to join, they ended up having 35 contestants and a total of 100 people present during the event.
The two tried their very best to design a fun yet challenging course for the students with the limited equipment available.
“We only used Field House equipment,” Pinella said. “There [were] some wall runs, some rope climbing that I wanted to use, but was unable to this time. Hopefully next semester we’ll have those incorporated.” said Pinella.
“I think our best obstacle was the springboard to the pull-up bar, [where you] traverse across, and then cross down onto parallel bars, like gymnastic parallel bars,” Pinella said.
However, the event was clearly more than just athleticism and sportsmanship. With just two weeks’ preparation time, the duo managed to bring life to what they believed in.
This event was definitely a unique addition to the usual weekend events here on campus, and it was quite an adventure for the organizers and the participants.
Poddar is a member of the class of 2018.
Kanakam is a member of the class of 2017.
