The biggest darts tournament in the world is throwing up an amazing and unlikely story. One where a 16 year old novice is playing the tournament of his life and is 3 wins from one of the most amazing wins in sports history!
The young giant killer is Luke Littler and he has one through to the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship quarter finals up against Brendan Dolan. It’s not just the victories, it’s the quality of darts that Luke is playing, averaging 105 in his recent victory over Raymond Van Barneveld.
What started off as a cute story has now got the makings of a Hollywood movie, particularly after Luke dispatching Van Barneveld 4 sets to 1 to book his quarter final spot against Dolan. So who is Luke Littler and can he actually win the World Darts Championship?
Who is Luke Littler?
Luke “The Nuke” Littler is a 16 year old darts wunderkind who has blazed onto the PDC Darts World Championship like a comet. A relative unknown (outside of hardcore darts fans) before this tournament, Littler is a name on the lips of most darts fans, with many asking if he can go all the way.
Darts has always been in Littler’s blood, throwing his first darts at 18 months and joining a darts academy at 8. After several junior tournament wins, Littler won his first senior darts tournament, the 2021 Irish Open. Luke “The Nuke” then played several WDF tournaments in 2022 and won the 2022 Welsh Open as well as other smaller tournaments such as the Romanian Open and the World Youth Masters.
The man child who doesn’t appear overawed playing on darts biggest stage has the darts world at his feet. The sky really is the limit with this budding young star, particularly if he can avoid the pitfalls that can affect young sports star who taste the limelight early in their career.
The spotlight gets hotter, Luke keeps rising to the challenge, but can he win it all?
What darts does Luke Littler use?
Luke is sponsored by Target Darts and uses the Target K Flex moulded flights. Littler also has his own darts range, the Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler Generation 1 Tungsten darts. Other 2024 PDC World Darts Championship quarter finalists who also use Target Darts include Rob Cross, Chris Dobey and Scott Williams.
Can Luke Littler win the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship?
Why not? Chances are one of the darts big guns in past champs Michael van Gerwen or Rob Cross will prevail but sometimes in sports miracles do happen and why can’t 2024 deliver us another epic?
Winning the quarter final against Dolan would lead to a Cross or Dobey semi final and if he wins that, would it be too much in asking for a Littler and van Gerwen dream final?