Argentinian Jesus Salate will return to Alexandra Palace in December after winning the Championship Darts Latin American & Caribbean Tour for the second consecutive year, doing so in dominant form.
He claimed four of the first five events, currently the only player with a seasonal average over 80 in South American, beating out the likes of Norman Madhoo, Rashad Sweeting as the Trinidad & Tobago World Cup pair of Joshua Balfour and James Walklin, leading the rankings by double the points of second place Madhoo.
This incredible dominance meant that he qualifies for the World Championships with 25% of the season still to play. He made his World Cup debut in 2025 with Victor Guillin, where the Argentinian pair World their group with wins over New Zealand and Finland, before falling short to Australia in the second Round.
Jesus followed this up a few months later with a second appearance in a PDC Major, his debut at the World Championships. Despite losing out to Ryan Meikle in the opening round, it was a big stepping stone in his career outside of South American.
In the months following, Salate has made an appearance on Modus Super Series, where he picked up 10 wins, including over the likes of Richie Howson and Jamie Atkins, just falling short of Finals Night through Group C.
He will return to Alexandra Palace in December as just the third South American to make multiple appearances after Norman Madhoo (4) and Diogo Portela (6).
He will certainly be looking to follow in the footsteps of Brazil’s Portela, who is the only South American to win at the World Championships when he knocked out Steve Beaton with a whitewash win in 2021.
The party-like crowd at Alexandra Palace will have to wait at least another year before the return of cult-hero Rashad Sweeting, who won the hearts of everyone in his 3-1 defeat to Jeffrey de Graaf at the 2024/25 event.
Words: Thomas Nankivell
Images: PDC
