The weekend saw two more events hosted in Europe for spots at the World Championship next month, with Anton Östlund and José Marques qualifying for their maiden tilts at Ally Pally as a result.
The PDC Nordic & Baltic Championship kicked off on Friday night with a group stage that would run through to Saturday evening. Östlund put in a 100.2 average in his opener to see of Alexander Thorvaldsson 6-0, before taking out the #1 seed Daniel Larsson 6-4 in his second group game, averaging 92.48.
The knock-out rounds began on Sunday, where he saw off Petri Rasmus 7-3 with another 92+ average, before breezing past fourth seed and Tour Card Holder Oskar Lukasiak 8-1 in the Semi-Finals, averaging 95.60 and winning it with a 170 checkout!
With Darius Labanauskas being confirmed as his opponent in the final, Östlund’s World Championship spot was now safe, as the Lithuanian had already qualified through the ProTour. However, he also managed to see off Labanauskas in devastating fashion, winning 6-4 to claim the title, and also secure a spot at next week’s Grand Slam of Darts.
The other qualifier came from Spain, as they hosted the Mediterranean qualifier.
The event saw 45 Spanish players competing, headlines by the likes of Jesus Noguera, Jose Justicia, and Ricardo Perez Ibarra, joined by just seven players from other nations.
Thibault Tricole was the only French representative, and the only player there with a Tour Card, while former Tour Card holder Michele Turetta was joined by 2026 World Cup partner Riccardo Castelli representing Italy.
There were two players from Portugal, headlined by the former Grand Slam champion José de Sousa, and joined by 2020 and 2021 World Cup partner José Marques. Finally, former World Championship qualifier Nico Bado was joined by a returning Dyson Parody for Gibraltar, Parody had made 9 appearances at the World Cup.
Early defeats for favourites such as de Sousa, Tricole, Turetta, Justicia, and Noguera all went out in the early rounds, which saw the field wide open by the Semi-Final stage.
José Marques took out Alvaro Munoz Lopez in the Semi-Finals, winning 7-3 with a 89.37 average to ensure there would be a Portuguese hope in the final. The in-form player of the day Ricardo Perez Ibarra averaged 97.49 in a 7-2 win over Jorge Garcia del Pozo in the other Semi-Final.
The final went down to a deciding leg, but the Portuguese thrower managed to get the better of Perez, winning 7-6 with a 90.23 average to become just the second player from Portugal to ever qualify for the World Championship, following in the footsteps of former World Cup partner José de Sousa.
