Paralympic champion Jody Cundy said he had an “absolute blast” on Strictly Come Dancing as he became the third celebrity to be eliminated from the competition.
The athlete, who celebrated his 45th birthday during Saturday’s live show, ended up in the dance-off against 40-year-old comedian Eddie Kadi after he failed to impress the judges with his salsa.
His performance on Saturday to Bellini’s Samba de Janeiro with his partner Jowita Przystal was filled with dramatic lifts and flips but ended up receiving 19 points, the lowest score of the night.
During Sunday’s show, Cundy and Przystal reprised their dance while Kadi and his partner Karen Hauer performed their American Smooth to Sex Bomb by Tom Jones again in a bid to impress the judges and remain in the competition.
After both couples had danced for a second time, it was a unanimous decision by the judges to save Kadi, sending Cundy home.
Craig Revel Horwood opted to save Kadi and Hauer based on “improvement and musicality” while Motsi Mabuse said she felt they were the “much stronger” couple.
Anton Du Beke added: “Based on the dance off and the dance off only, I thought one couple danced very well and one couple had a bit of an off night, there were a couple of mistakes there so I would like to save Eddie and Karen.”
With three votes to Kadi and Hauer, it meant they had won the majority vote and would be staying in the competition regardless, but head judge Shirley Ballas also said she would have saved the pair.
Reflecting on his time on the show, Cundy said: “You know what, when I signed up for this I thought what an earth am I signing up for and we did that first live show and I absolutely loved every second of it.
“And just being able to dance and do something I’ve never done before and get completely out of my comfort zone and with this amazing person.”
He added that his dancer partner always had “so much energy” during rehearsals and would never “lose any faith” in him.
“(She) motivates me on to do more and more. So I’ve had an absolute blast”, he added.
Polish dancer Przystal also praised her partner, saying: “I cannot even describe how proud I am of you Jody, cause from Day 1 till now, it’s enormous improvement.
“And I hope from now on, when you go out, when you hear the music, you’re not going to hide anywhere. You’re going to go on that dancefloor and you’re going to give it all.
“And I hope, one day when you look back at all of this, you will say to yourself I’m proud of myself, because that will be my biggest achievement.”
Cundy previously said he had “fears” he might have to pull out of the show following a trip to the hospital during movie week.
Whilst he was learning the Viennese waltz for week three, the cyclist and former swimmer had to take a trip to the hospital after his leg got infected, which he said was to do with sweat build-up between his limb and prosthetic leg.
During Saturday’s show, actor Layton Williams smashed this year’s record by achieving a score of 37, the highest of the series so far.
The Bad Education star, 29, secured the top mark and wowed the judges with his and partner Nikita Kuzmin’s cha cha cha to Million Dollar Bill by Whitney Houston.
Strictly Come Dancing returns on Saturday October 21 at 6.35pm, with the results show on Sunday October 22 at 7:15pm on BBC One.