Gian van Veen failed to end a memorable World Cup with a top prize. The 23-year-old darts player from Poederoijen, Gelderland, lost without a chance in the final to defending champion Luke Littler in a packed Alexandra Palace in London: 7-1.
Van Veen did not play his best match of the World Cup, but a Littler in top form can hardly be beaten. The 18-year-old Briton earned 1 million English pounds, approximately 1.15 million euros, with his victory. Van Veen’s second place was good for almost 460,000 euros.
Van Veen has not yet followed in the footsteps of Raymond van Barneveld and Michael van Gerwen, the Dutch world champions at the PDC darts association. Van Barneveld was the best in 2007. Van Gerwen won the world title in 2014, 2017 and 2019. Littler was in the final of the World Cup for the third year in a row. The English teenage sensation won his first world title last year after beating Van Gerwen in the final battle. The year before he bowed to Luke Humphries in the final.
Van Veen won the youth world title twice. He won his first major prize in Dortmund at the end of October by being crowned European champion. At the World Championships, ‘The Giant’ defeated Humphries in the quarter-finals and defeated two-time world champion Gary Anderson in a high-level semi-final battle. With third place, he is the best ranked Dutchman in the world rankings.
The 23-year-old Van Veen and the 18-year-old defending champion started the ‘youngest’ World Cup final ever nervously. The Dutchman won the first set, after a few misses. Van Veen lost the second, despite throwing 145 and 127. Littler then won the set his opponent had started. The Briton made it 4-1 after hitting a wasp that kept flying around his head.
Van Veen became visibly frustrated because things that worked so often last week now kept failing. He lost seven sets in a row to Littler, who only continued to play better. The Briton scored the maximum score of 180 fifteen times, compared to nine times for Van Veen. Littler threw an average of over 106 with three darts. Van Veen achieved an average of almost 100.
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