With February ticking into place, the curtain rose on the PDC Nordic & Baltic Tour with a suitably relentless flourish. Riga was selected as the season’s ignition point, hosting a weekend that offered neither respite nor mercy.
Two NB Tour events, a trilogy of European Tour qualification berths, and a field ravenous for immediate validation ensured that Latvia became a crucible of urgency and ambition, rather than a polite or tentative overture to the year ahead.
Proceedings began briskly at 2pm local time on Thursday 6th February, when attention snapped sharply to the solitary qualifying place for the first PDC Euro Tour event of 2026 – the Poland Darts Open. In a result not that surprising, Andreas Harrysson emerged triumphant, overpowering Finland’s Jani Haavisto with a commanding mid-90s average. It was an emphatic display rather than a scrape, and it secured the bearded Swede a ticket to Krakow while simultaneously planting the seeds of a rivalry that would resurface with interest.
There was no indulgence in reflection for those who fell short. With scarcely time to exhale, the field was plunged straight back into combat, this time chasing passage to the European Darts Trophy in Göttingen. This qualifier delivered a reversal of fortune as Finland struck back, Jonas Masalin prevailing over Swedish opposition to book his place in Germany come mid-March.
Friday morning ushered in the opening Pro Tour of the campaign, and with it came drama, durability, and a final that demanded full emotional investment. Cor Dekker eventually emerged from a last-leg decider against Harrysson, claiming only the second Nordic & Baltic Pro Tour title of his career – a moment rendered all the more poignant by the fact his previous triumph had arrived eight years earlier. It was less a victory than a vindication.
Euro Tour business returned to close out the day, and unfinished business was duly settled. Haavisto, still smarting from his earlier defeat, exacted measured revenge by defeating Harrysson in the final of the Belgian Darts Open qualifier, securing his own route into continental competition and restoring competitive equilibrium. Weeze awaits in March for Jani.
The weekend concluded with the second Pro Tour of an unrelenting five-event stretch in Latvia, and Haavisto – clearly galvanised by momentum and opportunity – tore through the field with renewed authority. A 6–4 victory over Oskar Lukasiak sealed the deal and capped a profoundly successful return to the PDC for the 38-year-old Finn, competing at this level for the first time in almost a decade.
If this was merely the opening chapter, then the Nordic & Baltic season has already announced itself as volatile, vindictive, and utterly unwilling to wait.
—–ENDS—–
Images: PDC
