Nikita Kanda on leaving Strictly: This has been an emotional journey

Nikita Kanda has said she feels emotional after being eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing but feels she gave it “everything”.

The BBC Asian Network presenter became the second celebrity to leave the latest series after she landed in the dreaded dance-off against Zara McDermott on Sunday’s show.

The 28-year-old faced elimination for the second consecutive week on the BBC show after scoring 21 with her movie week jive, which channelled 90s film Clueless.

Speaking about leaving the competition on Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two, Kanda said: “I feel quite emotional, this has been an emotional journey.

“It’s been so fun but I’m just really sad that our time got cut short.”

She revealed her professional partner Gorka Marquez had warned her that the show would “bring the emotions out” of her as she praised him.

“It was so special and I just had the best time with you. I honestly couldn’t have had a better partner, it was just amazing…

“All the laughs, all the fun, you just made it amazing for me.”

For her performance on Saturday, she dressed as Cher Horowitz from the 1995 coming-of-age film Clueless as they jived to Kids In America by Kim Wilde.

Kanda said she had “so much fun” with the dance even though she had a foot injury.

“I just wanted to give it 100% because that’s what you’re there to do, you’ve got to give it everything and I feel like that’s what we did and we had a blast,” she added.

“I’m just really sad that we weren’t in training today. It felt really weird going back to radio and then not meeting him after (for) training.”

Marquez also praised the radio host, recalling how he had “never laughed so much” and described her as a “beautiful human”.

The Spanish dancer added: “I think on Saturday night she delivered the best she (had) ever done in the whole week.

“But I know the jive is a fast dance and a lot of technical aspects, and for someone, like we always said, she never danced before, it’s difficult after two weeks dancing to go into a jive.”

During Saturday’s show, comedian Eddie Kadi and his professional partner Karen Hauer scored the first 10 of the series with their couples’ choice performance to Men In Black.

The pair were beaten to the top spot on the leaderboard by just one point after Irish TV presenter Angela Scanlon and her professional partner Carlos Gu scored 35 for their Charleston from the film Damn Yankees, while Scanlon’s parents watched from the audience for the first time.

Strictly Come Dancing will continue on Saturday.