Tim Shieff bats away non-supporters after missing out on Ninja Warrior UK title

Ninja Warrior UK contestant Tim Shieff is batting away the haters after he came agonisingly close to winning the title.

The free-runner missed out on defeating the obstacle course after he fell in the penultimate challenge of the course – the flying bars.

After some viewers tweeted about not wanting the vegan athlete to win, the 30-year-old took to Twitter to show love to those not so keen on him.

“I do love myself very much” he told one user who suggested he was arrogant.

To another user who said: “Meat free guy had better not win”, Shieff simply replied with a nerd-face emoji.

The athlete also thanked his supporters, while letting his 27,000 Twitter followers in on his training secrets.

“Thanks for all the messages of support. I had fun on that course and got to test my mental growth.

“Raw vegan diet, studying Conor McGregor @TheNotoriousMMA and Kodak Black playing in my head got me through on 2 weeks notice. Not sure if I’ll be back.”

Among his supporters was grime star JME, who live-tweeted throughout the broadcast of the series four finale.

The MC was rooting for Shieff, tweeting before the start of the show: “Ninja warrior on ITV in 10 mins to shout at the screen “GO TIM GO!”

He later wrote: “Tim the king!”

Shieff claimed the title of last man standing for the second time on Saturday, after being crowned with the honour in 2015.