Highlights from Daniel Gil's Win in 2020 American Ninja Warrior Finals

After eight weeks of qualifying, semifinal and final-round runs and a delay due to coverage of the presidential election, we have finally reached the end of the 2020 season of American Ninja Warrior. 

Before we could get to the final competition, there were several ninjas who had to run the semifinal course, including Daniel Gil, Jake Murray, Joe Moravsky and Jessie Graff. Once they had their runs, the top eight competed in the new Power Tower gauntlet.     

Jeshuah Lewis was up first. The rookie was brought to this year's competition by Moravsky as a member of his trio. He carefully made his way through each obstacle until he fell on Slam Dunk.     

David Wright was up next, but unfortunately, he went out on the third obstacle. His friend and teammate Amir Malik went after him and seemed to take a more cautious approach after seeing Wright fall so early. Even with his careful pace, he fell on Dragon Back, but he got there quickly enough to break into the top eight.

Gil is known as one of the top ninjas and has been since he debuted in 2015. His pre-run video was about how he wanted to use the $100,000 prize as a down payment on a house. Once he got to the final obstacle, he raced up Spider Trap and took the top spot with a time of just under 4:13. 

R.J. Roman blazed through the first five obstacles and up the Warped Wall. However, his pace might have led to his downfall on Dragon Back. His time got him into the top eight, but with four more ninjas to go, he was at risk of being knocked out of the final round.

Jessie Graff was focused and determined as she took to the course. The Wonder Woman 1984 stuntwoman was methodical in her approach, so she was going for a buzzer instead of trying to get the fastest time. Shockingly, she fell on Falling Shelves and looked like she may have hurt her shoulder in the process. That meant Jesse "Flex" Labreck was the only woman in the top eight. 

Adam Rayl earned his spot in the top eight by besting Dragon Back, but he still made it to the end of the course to hit the buzzer. Jake Murray's run followed. He beat Gil's earlier time with a 3:56 run to take the top spot and knock Roman out of the top eight. 

The final runner was The Weatherman. Moravsky is one of the many veteran ninjas who was looking for his first season victory this year. He won $10,000 on the Mega Wall and conquered the Power Tower to save his teammates earlier in the season. As always, he looked smooth as he started his run. His season came to a surprising end when he fell on Slam Dunk.

The Power Tower playoff round was all that stood between the top eight ninjas and the prize of $100,000 and a special trophy. Here is how the brackets looked for the final competition.

• Murray ran against Malik.
• Austin Gray ran against Najee Richardson.
• Reale ran against Rayl.
• Jesse Labreck ran against Gil.

Gray barely managed to beat Richardson to advance by 0.1 seconds. Rayl had a much more definitive victory over Reale a few moments later. 

Malik managed to best Murray to earn a spot against whoever won the race between Gil and Labreck. The Illinois native is officially the most successful woman in American Ninja Warrior history by making it this far in the competition and hitting the most buzzers, but she was going up against one of the fastest ninjas in the game. In the end, Gil's speed was too much to overcome. 

The next round featured some changes to the Power Tower as Malik raced Gray and Rayl took on Gil. Malik fell trying to catch Gray as he hit the buzzer to advance to the final round of the Power Tower playoffs. Gil and Rayl were neck-and-neck, but Gil ultimately hit the buzzer a fraction of a second quicker. It all came down to Gray and Gil.

They faced off on the Power Tower one last time. Gray took a slight lead early, but Gil caught up about halfway through and pulled ahead to hit the buzzer and earn the $100,000 prize. His six-year journey was finally complete as he was able to claim the title of American Ninja Warrior. 

The coronavirus pandemic forced the show to change how the competition worked in 2020, but it ultimately led to a fun season and gave us a definitive winner.