World Darts Championship: Nijman, Lim & Humphries Advance

A strong Wessel Nijman won 3-0 against the Czech Karel Sedlacek in the first round of the Darts World Championship. In the second round, the Dutchman can prepare for a showdown with the German Gabriel Clemens, who was too strong for the American Alex Spellman 3-0.

Earlier in the evening, Paul Lim wrote World Cup history by becoming the oldest player to ever win a match. He beat the Dutch Swede Jeffrey de Graaf 3-1.

Title candidate Luke Humphries started the tournament with a 3-1 win over Ted Evetts. The number two in the world rankings was especially strong in the first two sets. Humphries thus showed that he is ready to become world champion for a second time.

“I’m glad I’m not in the spotlight this year,” Nijman laughed afterwards. Last year he came to the World Cup in top form, where he was seen as a dangerous outsider. He was then eliminated without a chance in the first round. “Now I can prepare much better.”

“This was the ideal start to his tournament, but it says nothing about the sequel because there are so many days between now and the next match,” said the darts player from Uitgeest.

Nijman made a convincing impression with an average of just over 100. After top favorite Luke Littler, he is the second darts player to reach this limit in the opening round of the world championship.

Nijman started the match very strongly and quickly won the first set. In the set that followed, the Dutchman’s level dropped, but it was still enough to defeat his opponent. Although it must be said that Sedlacek missed several arrows on the doubles.

In the first leg of the last set, Sedlacek could have immediately dealt a blow to Nijman by breaking him. But the Dutchman was still the first to hit the double and thus take the lead in what ultimately turned out to be the deciding set. Nijman had little to fear from the Czech in the remainder of the set.

In the first game of the evening, Singaporean darts player Lim caused a surprise. He managed to beat the Dutch Swede Jeffrey de Graaf at the age of 71.

At 71 years and 322 days, Lim is the oldest participant ever in a world championship. The Singaporean had already held that record for some time. Lim is in his 27th World Cup.

In 1990, Lim made history by becoming the first darts player to throw a nine-darter at the World Cup.

Lim started the match very strongly and with a high average he won the first set. De Graaf, who reached the last sixteen at the World Cup last year, equalized. But the Dutch-born darts player could not continue in the right direction. The two sets that followed went somewhat surprisingly to Lim.

Lim may face Humphries in the second round. At the 2021 World Cup, the Singaporean pulled off a major upset by beating the Englishman after being 2-0 down.