Featured Image Credit: PDC
Topics: Darts, World Darts Championship
Jack Kenmare
Kenyan veterinarian David Munyua has secured his place in the second round of this year's World Darts Championship after pulling off arguably the biggest upset in the competition's history.
Munyua, who made history on Thursday as he became the first Kenyan player ever to compete in the tournament, had never been outside of Africa ahead of his debut against 18th seed Mike De Decker.
The 30-year-old travelled over 14 hours from Nairobi to London. "I’ve never experienced temperatures like this," he told Darts News before Thursday afternoon's session. "I can tell you: it was a very long flight."
Unfortunately for Munyua, he endured a nightmare start to the contest as he went 2-0 down to former World Grand Prix winner De Decker.
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In fact, at one stage, he was 125/1 to win the game as he trailed against the in-form Belgian.
But in a remarkable series of events that included killing the infamous Ally Pally wasp and putting it into his pocket, Munyua came from behind to secure a 3-2 victory – a feat that will go down in the history books.
Check out the incredible match-winning moment below.
Here's how fans reacted to the scenes.
One wrote: "Munyua take a bow, not just one of the biggest upsets this year but the biggest upset ever in the World Championships. He was 2-0 down in sets."
A second commented: 'From 2-0 down... possibly the greatest upset in the history of the World Championship," and a third said: "David Munyua: the most box-office man in world sport."
A fourth wrote: "David Munyua has just hit the wrong finish, hit D5, gone 6 into a 9, hit the wrong finish again and then had the ally pally wasp land on his face. All in the space of a few minutes. My new favourite player."
A fifth added: "One of the most chaotic entertaining darts matches I have ever seen. David Munyua, you have written yourself into the history books. What a man."
Remarkably, Munyua only started playing darts three years ago.
"I used to play mostly pool," he told Darts News. "One day I was having a beer with a friend, and he told me he used to play darts. He showed me how it worked. I threw my first darts and thought, ‘Wow, this is fun.’
"I immediately went to buy a board. A bit later that friend suggested entering small tournaments. ‘Why not?’ I made a lot of new friends there. It actually wasn’t about the PDC for me, but about the sportsmanship and the friendship. I loved that.”
Munyua will face either Kevin Doets or Matthew Dennant in the second round of this year's World Championship.