Luke Littler is formally a back-to-back world champion after thrashing Gian van Veen to seal his second World Championship title.
Luke Littler is formally a back-to-back world darts champion (Picture: Getty)
Luke Littler turned the primary to win back-to-back World Darts Championship titles in a decade as {the teenager} annihilated Gian van Veen to elevate the Sid Waddell Trophy. The all-conquering Littler’s third Ally Pally closing in a row noticed him come from a set behind to win 7-1 in opposition to European and World Youth champion Van Veen. Victory additionally implies that Littler takes residence a large £1million in prize cash, which is a PDC report for a single occasion.
The 18-year-old averaged 106.02 and smacked in 16 180s and 4 100-plus finishes on the way in which to glory and had tears in his eyes as he celebrated his newest main success. His girlfriend Religion Millar was additionally seen crying within the crowd. Littler was unable to ship a sought-after nine-dart end after lacking at T20 on his seventh dart within the fifth set, but that in the end didn’t matter a jot as he received the largest event in darts but once more, regardless of not turning 19 for an additional 18 days.
Van Veen had been trying to upset the chances and initially began brilliantly. The 6ft 4ins Dutchman, himself solely 23 years of age, had not received a single match at this event earlier than this yr. However he dumped out former world champions Luke Humphries and Anderson en path to the ultimate.
And the Large, who will rise to 3rd on the earth rankings after this, checked out 116 with 12 darts within the opening leg of the ultimate and took the primary set. Nevertheless, that was solely after lacking two darts at D8 and one at D4. Littler missed two of his personal on his favoured D10 checkout.
A 145 checkout noticed Van Veen break Littler’s throw firstly of set two and he adopted that with a 127 to safe a fourth consecutive leg. However the world No.1 broke again in a run of three consecutive legs to make it a set apiece.
Within the third set, Littler averaged 115.68 as he managed a 112 end, an 11-dart leg and a Huge Fish and marched right into a 2-1 lead. The Warrington teen was in a move state from there and received all three legs of the fourth set.
The notorious Ally Pally wasp re-emerged to the amusement of the London crowd, and the annoyance of Littler, however even that wasn’t sufficient to cease Luke the Nuke from blowing Van Veen away. He stretched his benefit to 4-1 whereas averaging nearly 108 per go to.
Luke Littler blew Gian van Veen away in a one-sided closing (Picture: Getty)
Van Veen missed a possibility to interrupt early within the sixth set, burning two darts on D20, and after slicing his hand unintentionally left blood on the board within the 5. Littler placed on a clinic as he outplayed the Dutchman, outscoring and outfinishing his opponent as he once more received all three legs to make it 5-1.
The board was modified, a lot to the frustration of each Littler and Van Veen, because of the speck of blood. However Littler’s momentum was not halted because the Englishman received 14 of 15 legs to extend his benefit. Van Veen threw six good darts to arrange a nine-dart alternative of his personal earlier than discovering T5 as an alternative of T20 to disappoint the followers. And he missed darts on D18 and D9 for the rating to slide to 6-1 to the highest-ranked participant on the planet.
After beginning the set with a 180, Littler continued to hammer them in and received three of 4 legs – sealing the match with a 147 checkout – within the deciding set to safe himself one other World Championship crown.
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Littler had already loved an unbelievable 12 months since his first world title. In 2025, he received the UK Open, World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and Gamers Championship Finals.
On high of that, he triumphed in two World Collection occasions and completed because the Premier League runner-up. However he had made no secret of his largest need – to defend his World Championship title. Having performed so, he turns into the primary man to go back-to-back since Gary Anderson 10 years in the past.
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