In 2024, Victorian teenager Zoe Harkness made Ninja Challenge League history as the first female athlete to qualify for an unofficial run on Stage Three with her nail-biting performance on Stage Two.
It was so amazing to see a female athlete on Stage Three that we’ve decided we simply have to see more of it, so in 2025 we’re changing the way we allocate unofficial runs to ensure more female athletes get exposed to the later stages.
In the past, we allocated unofficial runs to the top performing athletes in each stage of the combined Adult Male and Adult Female divisions of the Ninja Challenge League Finals, regardless of sex.
But after giving unofficial runs to a number of non-finishers in every other division – including the Masters and now-defunct Young Adults – we realised it didn’t make sense not to do the same for the Adult Female Division going forwards.
Starting this season, unofficial runs for the Adult Female Division the NCL Finals will be allocated as so:
This will match the way unofficial runs will be allocated for the Adult Male Division this year as well.
With so much young female talent in Australia, we might not even need to worry about unofficial runs – this could be the year a female ninja breaks through to earn an official attempt at Stage Three, something few ninjas have earned in our first nine seasons, regardless of sex.
We hope you’re as excited for this change as we are, and we see an even greater number of female athletes joining Zoe in vying for Total Victory in 2025.
*: Note, only official runners will be eligible to do an unofficial run on the next stage, which means that only Adult Female/Male competitors that clear Stage One will be eligible for an unofficial run on Stage Three. This means that while an unofficial Stage Three run is not a guarantee, it’s now a lot more achievable.
See the full Finals format rules here: https://www.ninjachallengeleague.com/about/rules-and-format/