Lourence Ilagan clearly didn’t fancy giving up his crown just yet. The Filipino star successfully defended his PDC Asian Championship title in Qingdao on Sunday, beating compatriot Alexis Toylo 7–4 in a final that was equal parts drama, nerves, and missed doubles.
This was the fourth staging of the tournament, billed as Asia’s festival of darts and answer to the continent’s biggest darts showpiece – although Qingdao is quite the contrast to Blackpool. Once again, it delivered a clash of two of the circuit’s heavyweights – though Ilagan showed why his passport comes with an automatic entry stamp to the winner’s circle.
Ilagan’s campaign barely broke a sweat in the group stage, brushing aside Jia Xing Phung and Sonny Balagat as though they were warm-up acts. In the last 16 he eliminated 2022 champion Christian Perez, the same man who’d once denied him before, just to make the point crystal clear: not this time.
On Finals Day, Ilagan saw off Sho Okano 6–2, then stared down Motomu Sakai in the semi-finals. Trailing 4–2, Ilagan rattled off four straight legs, flicking the switch from in trouble to absolutely ruthless faster than Sakai could regroup. That comeback paved the way for a Filipino face-off against Toylo in the final.
And what a start he made: consecutive 12-darters, an early 3–1 cushion, then extending to 5–2 as Toylo’s doubles went on holiday. Alexis did claw it back to 5–4, but more missed chances at crucial moments left the door wide open. Ilagan didn’t need to be asked twice – slamming it shut with all the authority of a defending champion who doesn’t plan on giving up his seat at the head table.
Cue trophy lift, cue celebrations, cue another trip to Wolverhampton for the Grand Slam of Darts.
Alexis Toylo wasn’t exactly a bystander. His run included a whitewash of Mikuru Suzuki (a five-leg stroll that barely gave the Japanese trailblazer time to chalk her darts), plus deciding-leg wins over Qingyu Zhan and the evergreen Paul Lim.
That semi-final against Lim was the kind of battle that proves why darts is the sport where age is just a number. Lim, at 71, pushed Toylo to the wire and very nearly pinched the win. Toylo survived, but it took everything he had.
The final was a step too far, though. Doubling deserted him just when he needed it most, and Ilagan isn’t the kind of opponent who lets you live twice.
Paul Lim, the legend himself, showed he’s still got the fight, seeing off Xiaochen Zong and Ryusei Azemoto before narrowly missing out on the final. Sakai was the other semi-finalist, having beaten Hong Kong’s Man Lok Leung in a quarter-final that could easily have been mistaken for a main event.
Speaking of Leung, the World Cup quarter-finalist did enough to book his spot at the next World Championship, as did Paolo Nebrida. Both snuck through as the next-best non-qualified players on the Asian Tour rankings, joining Ilagan, Toylo, Sakai, Azemoto and Lim at Alexandra Palace.
So when December rolls around, Ally Pally won’t just be full of Brits, Dutchmen, and Germans. Asia’s finest will be there too – and thanks to Qingdao, Ilagan arrives with serious momentum.
Lourence can now kick up his feet and look forward to heading back to the Grand Slam of Darts in November, where the star-studded field will battle for the Eric Bristow Trophy. He’ll arrive as Asia’s man to beat – again – and we are certainly due someone from that continent to threaten lifting a major piece of PDC silverware.
Last 16
Alexis Toylo 5-0 Mikuru Suzuki
Qingyu Zhan 5-0 Tomoya Goto
Ryusei Azemoto 5-0 Abiabi Alain
Paul Lim 5-2 Xiaochen Zong
Lourence Ilagan 5-3 Christian Perez
Sho Okano 5-3 Paolo Nebrida
Motomu Sakai 5-2 Yuta Hayashi
Man Lok Leung 5-3 Chi-Jui Tseng
Quarter-Finals
Alexis Toylo 6-5 Qingyu Zhan
Paul Lim 6-4 Ryusei Azemoto
Lourence Ilagan 6-2 Sho Okano
Motomu Sakai 6-3 Man Lok Leung
Semi-Finals
Alexis Toylo 6-5 Paul Lim
Lourence Ilagan 6-4 Motomu Sakai
Final
Lourence Ilagan 7-4 Alexis Toylo
—–ENDS—–
Images: PDC
