Darts might have its origins as a British pub game, but at 16, losing PDC World Darts Championship finalist Luke Littler is still too young to legally buy an alcoholic drink.
The teenage debutant’s run to Wednesday’s all-English showpiece match at London’s Alexandra Palace, where he lost 7-4 to world No. 1 Luke Humphries after having a dart to lead 5-2, earned him a runners-up check for ￡200,000 (US$254,160) just months after his high-school exams.
Premier League soccer players were among the sports fans captivated by the story of Littler, who before his opening match at the event two weeks ago was ranked 164th in the world, but now boasts close to 500,000 Instagram followers and 100,000 on X.
Photo: AP
“I’ve had a message off Luke Shaw of Manchester United, Rio Ferdinand and I had a message off Gary Neville and Jonny Evans ... so it’s just crazy,” said Littler, whose home in Warrington, England, is about 30km from Old Trafford, before the final.
Littler’s road to becoming darts’ youngest world finalist included a 4-1 hammering of five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld, his childhood hero, and helped the sport generate television audiences in the millions.
He defeated 2018 champion Rob Cross 6-2 in the semi-finals.
Photo: EPA-EFE
To its supporters, darts is a game of fine motor skills allied to mathematical knowledge, made all the harder at professional level by the players being cheered on by raucous and often alcohol-fueled crowds.
Players try to hit specific small targets while standing 2.37m from the board, on which the most valuable “treble” sections are also the smallest.
The aim is to go from 501 to exactly zero in the fewest number of darts while finishing either on a double on the outer edge of the board or the central bullseye.
Each player takes turns to throw three darts, with the highest total possible 180 — three treble 20s.
Littler, nicknamed “Luke the Nuke,” hit 16 180s against Cross.
Promoter Barry Hearn, a key behind-the-scenes figure in snooker’s rise to UK television popularity in the 1980s, has labelled darts “the working man’s golf.”
However, there are those who question whether the lack of athletic activity involved means darts can truly call itself a sport, with Littler’s pre-match routine at the World Championships unlikely to appease the skeptics.
“I don’t wake up until 12, in the morning go for my ham and cheese omelette, come here and have my pizza, and then go on the practice board,” said Littler, also known for celebrating his victories with a post-match kebab.
This year’s World Championship was still the subject of a feature in The Economist, a magazine known for its political analysis, on what it said was darts’ “debauched collision of fancy dress [the fans] and elite sport.”
After the final, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wrote on X: “Congratulations Luke, a great win tonight. What an incredible final to end a historic championship.”
However, Littler is no overnight success story, having first played as a small boy and attending the St Helens Darts Academy from the age of nine.
“When he first came as a kid you could see he was very special and he just got better and better,” academy cofounder Karl Holden said before the final. “He hardly lost so we said: ‘What do we now?’ We put him into the elite group, which is our best players, and he had just turned 10.”
For some, Cristiano Ronaldo remains the essential spearhead for Portugal’s FIFA World Cup bid, while others believe his presence would prevent Roberto Martinez’s strong side from flourishing. The debate around the five-time Ballon d’Or winner rages on, as it did at UEFA Euro 2024 and four years ago in Qatar — yet Ronaldo endures, ready to play in a record sixth World Cup. The 41-year-old remains a global superstar despite swapping the European elite for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr, and is the leading men’s international goalscorer with 143 strikes. With 25 of those coming in 30 games under Martinez, the coach
Taiwanese tennis star Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles at the French Open, after she and German partner Mark Wallner defeated Slovenian Andreja Klepac and Briton Lloyd Glasspool in straight sets, despite temperatures exceeding 32°C in Paris, while Taiwan’s top men’s doubles player Ray Ho also reached the second round. Hsieh, who made it to the semi-finals in the mixed doubles at Roland Garros in 2024, and Wallner defeated Klepac and Glasspool 6-3, 7-5 in just more than an hour, converting three of five break points, while holding their opponents to just one conversion
FAST AND LOOSE: Despite command struggles, Ohtani has pitched his way out of trouble after falling behind in counts, which manager Roberts credited to his velocity Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday night tossed six innings of no-hit ball, gave himself an early lead with a home run and still was not satisfied with his performance. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way superstar dropped some expletives that were picked up by the on-field mic as he struggled with his command in a 4-1 win over the Colorado Rockies. He struck out seven, walked four and gave up an earned run in the fourth inning while visibly fuming on the mound. Ohtani (5-2) earned his third consecutive victory. “Just command was off, and I just felt like I was battling the lack of
Taiwanese sprinter Chen Yi-cen on Friday won the silver medal in the women’s 400m final at the Asian U20 Athletics Championships in Hong Kong, with a time of 53.16 seconds. Chen, 15, was the youngest among the eight finalists, and her performance also met the qualifying standard of 53.50 seconds for the Nagoya Asian Games in Japan in September and October. Chen first made her mark at the National Games in Tainan in 2023, at the age of 13, winning the women’s 400m final in 55.55 seconds to become the youngest gold medalist in the history of the event. Meanwhile,
RSS