Darts
Who is Luke Littler, the 17-year old sensation looking to win his first World Darts Championship?
The teenager from Warrington (UK) has his sights set on the PDC title after just falling short last year.
There was just one key story that the 2023-24 World Darts Championship delivered and that was the incredible journey of then 16-year-old Luke “The Nuke” Littler as he progressed to the final of the celebrated competition only to fall short in the final to Luke Humphries.
Littler taking world darts by storm
The now 17-year-old has already become a household name across the UK with his easy going public profile and legion of followers on social media.
The emergence of the Warrington native has also been a breath of fresh air for the world of darts with the sport stuck in the stereotype of an “old school bar sport” with veterans of the game playing whilst smoking and drinking.
Littler’s popularity, having already earned more than £1m for his tournament results this year, has also led to him winning the BBC for the Young Sportsperson of the Year award, with the darts maestro nominated alongside two other promising British stars, swimmer William Ellard and skater Sky Brown.
All eyes on ‘Ally Pally’
Littler has negotiated his way to the semi-final stage at the 2024-2025 PDC Championship which has been running since mid-December at Alexandra Palace in North London to a packed house each night.
Littler was in dazzling form on New Year’s Day at the quarter-final stage against Nathan Aspinall and showed little of the sluggish slow starts that we saw in previous rounds.
Averaging an incredible 101.5 during the contest, Littler delivered eight 12 dart finishes in the first four sets and on the few occasions when Aspinall turned on the style with 180’s, ‘The Nuke’ bounced back with big darts.
Littler now faces England’s Stephen Bunting in the semi-final with the No. 8 seed advancing as he overpowered Scotland’s Peter Wright with a 5-2 quarter-final win.
In the other semi-final, No. 3 seed Michael van Gerwen faces Chris Dobey with the best of 13 set final earmarked for Friday, 3 January.
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