FOLLOWING his valiant defeat to Luke Humphries in ‘that Ally Pally final’, many have forgotten that Luke Littler is already a PDC World Champion. The World Youth Championship came about as the PDC revamped it’s structures during 2010/11 and onward. Q- Schools, Tour Cards, Tier Tours and much more, were on their way and one of the first things to be added was a ‘World Championship’ for those under 23.
The inaugural event (2011) saw 64 players compete at a qualifying day played down until only two players remained. The final was played each other on January 3rd. After winning five matches, Michael van Gerwen and Arron Monk qualified for the final. Monk managed to win the final 6-4.
An idea of the quality can be gained from the names defeated by Van Gerwen en route. Keegan Brown, Adam Hunt, Shaun Griffiths and Benito van de Pas were amongst MVG’s victims. Other such as future World Master Adam Smith Neale and Australia’s prodigy Mitchell Clegg were also knocked out.
Monk upset the pundit in the final against Van Gerwen defeating him 6-4, averaging over 93, to become the first ever PDC age group World Champion.
It is worth noting that not only do the winners go down in history, the events runners-up have a superb record of going on to pro tour or higher wins and notable overall careers.
MVG is also the only person to have lost twice in the final. Other than MVG’s remarkable record Nathan Aspinall was also defeated in the final and went on to win multiple majors including the World Matchplay. The only double winner is Belgium’s Dimitri Van Den Bergh who also went on to win the Blackpool event.
So far Michael Smith and Luke Humphries have gone on to win the senior World Championship, will Luke Littler make it three?
Roll of Honour (12 Winners)
2023 Luke Littler 6-4 Gian Van Veen
2022 Josh Rock 6 -1 Nathan Girvan
2021 Ted Evetts 6-5 Nathan Rafferty
2020 Bradley Brooks 6-5 Joe Davis
2019 Luke Humphries 6-0 Adam Gawlas
2018 Dimitri Van den Bergh 6-3 Martin Schindler
2017 Dimitri Van Den Bergh 6-3 Josh Payne
2016 Corey Cadby 6-2 Berry Van Peer
2015 Keegan Brown 6-4 Rowby-John Rodriguez
2014 Max Hopp 6-5 Nathan Aspinall
2013 Michael Smith 6-1 Ricky Evans
2012 James Hubbard 6-3 Michael Van Gerwen
2011 Arron Monk 6-4 <Michael Van Gerwen
—–ENDS—–
Image: PDC
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