While viewers will have to wait until Sunday night to see Mr Dark's run on Ninja Warrior, he divulged to the Newcastle Herald that the order of viewing is a bit of TV trickery - he was actually the first ever contestant to tackle this year's course.

"There were certainly some nerves there. It was my first time doing this kind of thing and I didn't get to see how other people were approaching it," Mr Dark said. "I was hoping for a practice run."

Despite the nerves, Mr Dark described his maiden run as a "cool experience" and said he is looking forward to giving it another go.

Having moved to the Hunter with the family when he was 17, Mr Dark joined the Australian army a few years later - partly for his loves of being active and partly to follow in the footsteps of his father.

After his march out parade in Kapooka, Mr Dark was sent back to the School of Infantry in Singleton.

"After a few weeks of being there I got the news that my father had passed away suddenly," Mr Dark said. "It was shocking. There is a lot of stuff he has missed out on with me growing up.

"The last photo we have together is at the parade."

In 2016, a 20-year-old Mr Dark was deployed to Afghanistan for six months.

"My role was a bit of a guardian angel," he said. "I was overlooking for the higher ranking officers who were teaching the Afghan national army so they could better defend themselves."

Mr Dark said watching the Taliban take power and seeing the unrest it caused at the end of 2021 was "heartbreaking".

"You're trying not to think that you did it for nothing. We did our role as best we could when we were there, I couldn't help anymore," he said. "It is definitely disappointing to see it go downhill so fast after seeing progress when we were there."

Shortly after returning from service, looking for "a change", he took up the bagpipes and joined the military's pipe band where he stayed for the following 18 months.

While his job at CrossFit Indulge in Rutherford keeps him too busy to play all the time, Mr Dark often goes to the gym when it's empty to keep the hobby alive.

"It's a nice industrial space so there is no risk of annoying the neighbours," he said. "I really don't want to lose that skill."

Clad in not much more than a kilt, Mr Dark, whose great-grandmother came to Australia from Scotland, made his entrance to Ninja Warrior flanked by bagpipers.

"I just wanted to get out there and show that crossfit is a very broad range of fitness and it does carry over to all sports. Even if it's something so different and out there," Mr Dark said. "I'm pretty good with the upper-body but there is certainly room for improvement in swinging and grabbing."

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