Featured Image Credit: PDC
Topics: Luke Littler, Darts, World Darts Championship
Josh Lawless
Luke Littler made a major change for his first game since becoming world champion of darts earlier this month.
Littler became the youngest ever winner of the historic competition at Alexandra Palace, beating Michael van Gerwen 7-3 in a stunning performance in the final.
As well as collecting the Sid Waddell trophy, 'The Nuke' won a £500,000 prize and avenged his loss to Luke Humphries a year prior in his tournament debut.
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Having only been active for one full year as a professional, Littler won the Premier League, World Series Finals and Grand Slam of Darts prior to triumphing in the big one.
3 January 2025 will be a memorable date for the Littler family and quite possibly in the history of the sport if he goes on to dominate darts like many expect him to.
And Littler has elected to remember his first world championship win by framing the darts he used to get the job done.
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Therefore, for his game against PDC Asian Champion Lourence Ilagan in the round of 16, he used a different set of darts - though they were still in the same style and colour as his usual arrows supplied by sponsor Target.
"I'm not going to throw with the darts I won the world championship with - they're going to be in a frame, so now it's about breaking in a new set," Littler said before he got his campaign underway.
"I can't wait for when John McDonald calls me out for the first time as world champion.
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"I had a tough game against Lourence at the Grand Slam, and I cannot wait to get back on stage now. It feels good to be back and hopefully I can win.
Although it wasn't all plain-sailing, Littler claimed a 6-3 victory over Ilagan to book his spot in the quarter-finals.
Every darts player has their own preferred set of arrows and Littler's have a longer point - which he explained gives him a better chance of getting a 180 on the oche.
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"I have a longer point because when my darts sit in the board," he said on a TikTok posted last month.
"There's more room of getting a 180 or a 140, whereas if you've got small points they'll go through the board and then it's harder to get a 180."