Scotland’s Mitchell Lawrie was denied in his bid to become the youngest-ever winner of a world darts title by Dutchman Jimmy van Schie, who tipped the runner-up to be “the future of darts”.
The 15-year-old Lawrie, the first teenager to reach a WDF World Championship final, was beaten 6-3 at Lakeside Country Club.
Lawrie has drawn comparisons with world number one Luke Littler, who reached the PDC World Darts Championship final on his debut at the age of 16 in 2024.
He impressed this week with an unmatched tally of 56 maximum 180s across his nine matches, and maintained a three-dart average of 93.15.
But tournament top seed Van Schie battled back from 3-0 down in the final, winning six sets without reply to claim victory on Sunday.
Van Schie told S4C: “He is such a phenomenal player. He’s a power scorer, so mature for his age and the sky is the limit for him.
Lawrie had earlier been crowned WDF Open Youth World Champion in Surrey, after beating Germany’s Florian Preis 4-2 in the first final of the day.
He said that victory, which made him the first Scottish winner of the trophy, meant “everything”.
Deta Hedman ended her long wait to win the women’s event for the first time.
Having lost each of her three previous finals in 2012, 2014 and 2016, Hedman, 66, defeated Dutch opponent Lerena Rietbergen 4-1.
Hedman’s triumph came in the absence of 2024 winner Beau Greaves, who has accepted a place in the PDC World Darts Championship, which starts on Thursday at Alexandra Palace.
Zehra Gemi became the first-ever Turkish darts world champion in the girls’ event.
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Source: BBC
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