Paul Anthony Terek

Paul Anthony Terek (ポール・アンソニー・テレック) is an American Olympic Decathlete. He advanced to the Third Stage in his first SASUKE tournament, but hasn't cleared the First Stage in his three subsequent attempts.

Due to his large size, Terek is able to overpower obstacles and use his height to his advantage. This was particularly evident in his first attempt in SASUKE 17. In the First Stage, he was able to grab one hand to the top of the netting on the Jump Hang and finished the stage with 4.4 seconds left. In the Second Stage, he made up for time lost on the Spider Walk and finished the last three obstacles in under 20 seconds to clear the stage with 2.7 seconds left. However, in the Third Stage, his weight and size worked against him. He struggled through most of the obstacles and couldn't hold himself up on the Cliffhanger and ultimately failed there.

In SASUKE 19, he again showed great speed and he used his size to his advantage. Most notably, he was able to pole vault all the way to the other side on the Pole Maze. Because of this, the announcer gave him the nickname, "American Monster." However, his run ended when he couldn't get high enough onto the walls of the Jumping Spider.

Terek returned for SASUKE 22. Again, he showed great speed and beat the obstacle that defeated him in SASUKE 19, the Jumping Spider. He was able to advance all the way to a new First Stage obstacle, the Slider Jump. However, he couldn't hang on to the net and fell into the water. In his post-run interview he said, "It was good to get through the Spider Wall (Jumping Spider), but disappointed still, just disappointed."

Terek was invited back 9 months later for SASUKE 24. Although he was completely new to the first two obstacles, the Jyunidantobi and X-Bridge, he blazed through them like many other competitors. He went on to clear the Jumping Spider for the second time, though he was slow on the Spider Walk portion of the obstacle. After clearing the Soritatsu Kabe in one shot, he faced the Slider Jump for a second time but hesitated and did not dismount the obstacle once the stick reached the end of the track. After hanging on this obstacle for some amount of time, he tried to reach for the netting but lost his grip once he did. This seemed to end popular belief that a tall competitor like Terek could reach the netting on the Slider Jump without dismounting the obstacle.

Trivia

 * Coincidentally, Terek's first name uses the same Katakana (ポール) as the word "pole", which is a lone word frequently used in SASUKE obstacles.
 * The announcer in SASUKE 17 was so surprised of his weight, during his run he kept saying "Kyujuichikiro!" which translates to "Ninety-One Kilo!".
 * Terek is only one of four people who could reach the top support of the Jump Hang, as he achieved that feat in SASUKE 17.
 * The other three who achieved that feat are Hatakeda Yoshiaki, James Okada, and Kane Kosugi.
 * In American Ninja Challenge, Terek was one of two coaches to announce the third event of the tournament (the other was Henry Cejudo).