Gian van Veen has achieved a unique achievement by reaching the semi-finals of the Darts World Cup. The 23-year-old darts player from Andel eliminated Luke Humphries, number two in the world rankings, in a strong match on Thursday evening. In the end it became 5-1 The Giantwhich recorded an average of above 105.
Gian van Veen’s opponent in the quarter-finals was Coolhand Luke Humphries. The Englishman is second in the world rankings and has already become world champion in 2024. And so Van Veen knew that he had to come from good houses to win this pot.
The darts player who lives in Andel had that will to win from the first turn. He immediately threw his first 180 in the set started by Humphries. And to make it even better, it broke The Giant Humphries at 2-2 in legs to take the first set from the Englishman.
The second set went a little less smoothly for the 23-year-old Dutchman and so Humphries leveled the score in sets and this promised to be an extremely exciting match. And that tension remained visible in the third set when the one-time world champion threw two darts in a row into the wrong box in the deciding leg of the set. Van Veen was quick to take that set and put another 2-1 lead in sets on the board.
BigFish
It was the first time for the 1.93 meter tall darts player that he was in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, but that did not seem to matter to him. Because in the first leg of the second set he threw the ‘Big Fish’, the highest possible score of 170 to throw out. And when he also stole the next leg from Humphries, it became clear that this could be a very nice evening. Especially when Van Veen also took the set to make it 3-1, after which he needed two more sets to win.
And a set later, Van Veen only needed one more. Humphries made mistakes and Van Veen threw very well and always took advantage of the Englishman’s missed arrows, after which the victory was almost impossible for him to miss. Van Veen’s good form continued in the following set. The score was 5-1 and Humphries had no chance.
Another former world champion
On Friday, Van Veen will play the semi-final against Scot Gary Anderson. The former world champion also eliminated Michael van Gerwen earlier in this tournament.
Thanks to this wonderful victory, Van Veen is virtually third in the world rankings and passes Michael van Gerwen. He is now also assured of participation in the Premier League, the largest darts competition.
Who is Gian van Veen?
Gian van Veen is a 23-year-old darts player, born in Poederoijen, just on the other side of the Maas in Gelderland. He has been living with his girlfriend in Andel (municipality of Altena) in Brabant for a number of months. This year the 23-year-old talent became European darts champion. In addition to darts, Van Veen is a big fan of football and supports FC Den Bosch.