Darts World Championship in London - Smith and the farewell to the darts throne
Michael Smith won't be doing any teleshopping with a magnificent view this time. The dethroned darts champion from England will not only have to bid farewell to the World Championship as defending champion, but will also lose his number one status after exactly one year on January 4.
"Michael is a great guy. But there could only be one winner and I'm glad it was my night," said Chris Dobey after his furious 4:0 win over Smith.
The previous year, the latter had achieved the World Championship triumph with strong double ratings and watched TV shows in his hotel the following night - the huge Sid Waddell Trophy could be seen in the corner.
A mixed year
This time, the farewell to Alexandra Palace in London was much more sober. The defeat in the round of 16 against the excellent Dobey was at best surprising in its severity. The Bully Boy, as Smith is known, had already revealed weaknesses against Kevin Doets (3:2) and Madars Razma (4:1). The last professional darts player to become world champion twice in a row remains Scotland's Gary Anderson (2015 and 2016).
The year since the World Championship title has been extremely mixed for the 33-year-old Smith. 13 professionals won more prize money than the Englishman in the 2023 calendar year, which is one of the reasons why he will now be replaced as number one. The candidates for this are Michael van Gerwen from the Netherlands and Luke Humphries from England. The PDC ranking list is calculated over a period of two years.
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Source: www.stern.de
