Not even an injured throwing hand could stop Gian van Veen on his way to becoming the youngest European champion in darts history. “I’m bleeding a little,” the Dutchman said on stage after his thrilling semi-final against compatriot Michael van Gerwen, explaining that he had cut himself on one of his sharp arrows.
The 23-year-old van Veen quickly put the mishap in Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle behind him and just a few hours later achieved the greatest success of his career: the European Championship title.
“I will never forget this moment and it’s incredible to win my first major title in Germany. What a night!” said van Veen after dramatically defeating van Gerwen (11:9) and Luke Humphries of England (11:10) in the final.
Darts European Championship: Cup can go to bed with you
Van Veen received 120,000 pounds (around 137,000 euros) for the triumph. The youngster also improved by eight places in the world rankings and reached seventh place just two months before the World Cup. The youngster even took the special European Championship trophy with him to sleep.
“Back in my own bed with a nice souvenir from this weekend,” van Veen captioned a photo on Instagram.
For Humphries, the narrow defeat hurts twice as much. On the one hand, the Englishman is still without a title at the European Championships – on the other hand, he is threatened with being replaced as leader in the near future by compatriot Luke Littler. “This is hard for me to take. I’m devastated, but I accept the defeat – it just wasn’t my night,” said Humphries.