Australia's Heta lands nine-darter at World Champs
Australia's Damon Heta kicked off the resumption of the World Darts Championship in style by throwing a stunning nine-darter, making one fan particularly happy.
The Perth star achieved darting perfection in the second set of his third-round match at London's Alexandra Palace against Luke Woodhouse to earn a cool $A121,000 payday before bowing out of the tournament.
Heta was millimetres away from throwing a nine-darter in the previous round when he missed the double 12, but he made no mistake this time in the first match after the Christmas break.
He followed up successive 180s with a treble 20 and treble 19 before sending his ninth dart the right side of the wire.
Ninth-seed Heta's feat was the second time a nine-darter has been thrown in the 2025 tournament and the 16th of all time at the World Championship, following Christian Kist's effort before Christmas.
Woodhouse took his opponent's nine-dart achievement in good spirits, raising his arm in the air.
However, it was Woodhouse who progressed to the last 16 as he fought back from 3-1 down to winning the final three sets.
Heta is 15th seed to be knocked out at this year's event and the fourth of the top 10 seeds to exit.
His exploits though were good enough to earn a bonus from the sponsors and bring a huge smile to one Swiss fan.
The feat meant 37-year-old teacher and darts fan, Mauro, also pocketed 60,000 pounds ($A121,000) after being randomly selected from the crowd at Alexandra Palace in London.
"I don't have any real words, it's just unbelievable," said Mauro, who travelled with a group of friends to the event.
"We will use the 60,000 pounds to get new windows, it's quite boring but we need stuff for the house, I'll also cover every expense for the whole group - and use it to get some more beers!"
Irish bookmaker Paddy Power is running the bonus campaign, offering a STG180,000 pounds ($A364,000) payout for every perfect leg, with the prize split evenly between the player who lands the shot, a lucky fan in the crowd and Prostate Cancer UK.
with Reuters
