Hempel comes up trumps and yet gets the boot
Florian Hempel shows what he's made of at the World Darts Championship: But despite an outstanding performance, the German pro has no chance against Stephen Bunting. In a crazy match, the Englishman hits virtually everything and the penultimate German is knocked out in the third round.
The German darts high at the World Championships in London seems to end in deep disillusionment. On Thursday in the atmospheric Alexandra Palace, Cologne outsider Florian Hempel was also eliminated despite a decent performance - as were two other players from a German quartet that had made it through to the third round for the first time on Wednesday. He lost 0:4 to Stephen Bunting with almost no chance.
Hempel, a former handball goalkeeper, confidently stormed onto the stage shortly before 2 p.m. to the Brings carnival hit "Kölsche Jung", but then it quickly came to an end. Bunting, the 2014 BDO World Champion and number 18 seed, played the 501 twice in just eleven darts.
Although Hempel managed a 164 finish to the cheers of the many German fans, he still lost the first set. He was good, Bunting was better: the Englishman averaged more than 100 points with three darts and only opened a small door back into the match for Hempel once more. But Hempel missed his chance in the fourth set.
In the second round, Hempel was seemingly hopelessly behind against the Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh - and then pulled off a sensational comeback. Four Germans in the third round meant a World Championship record, but on Wednesday both last year's semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler were knocked out.
The last German hope is therefore Ricardo Pietreczko. However, the man from Nuremberg, nicknamed "Pikachu", is facing probably the toughest opponent of all in the evening session (9.45 pm/Sport1 and DAZN): England's Luke Humphries has won three of the last four major tournaments and is the top favorite at the World Championships.
Gabriel Clemens was already thinking positively again the day after his crash landing against Dave Chisnall (1:4). On Instagram, the "German Giant" presented his 263,000 followers with a bracelet with the words "Giving up is not an option" and accompanied the short clip with the song "Never Give Up" by Australian pop star Sia.
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Despite his strong showing at the World Championships, Hempel's run in the Darts event came to an end in the third round. His elimination by Stephen Bunting in a thrilling match marked the end of Germany's promising start in the World Darts Championships.
Source: www.ntv.de
