Tag: Luke Littler

Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler hits 9-darter, wins Bahrain Darts Masters

Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler, who broke out in the PDC World Darts Championship, became the youngest player to hit a televised nine-darter.

Think of the most electric thing you’ve experienced at a sporting event. A 90th-minute goal? Successful Hail Mary? Walk-off home run?

Wrong. It’s a nine-darter. You don’t need to know a thing about darts, the tournament being played, or the players involved to feel the pulse of the crowd grow and grow as every subsequent dart hits the mark for a perfect 501.

Luke “The Nuke” Littler, who made waves around the New Year as the 16-year-old-who-looks-like-your-34-year-old-colleague became the youngest player to reach the championship round of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) World Darts Championship, is back at it again. On Friday, he recorded a perfect leg of 180, 180 and 141 in the quarterfinals as he became the youngest player to hit a televised nine-darter, according to SkySports.

Littler went on to win the Bahrain Masters, taking down Michael van Gerwen in the championship round. It is his first senior PDC title, according to SkySports.

This was also, Littler said, the first time he threw darts since he fell in the championship round of the World Darts Championship. No practice in more than two weeks leading straight into a nine-darter and PDC championship is just the type of psycho behavior we’ve come to expect and love from The Nuke.

He made 180 look easy in the quarterfinals, but even the pros know mere millimeters changes the outlook. See his championship-winning leg:

16-year-old darts star Luke Littler’s mother released his birth certificate to prove his age

Second-place PDC World Darts Championship finisher Luke Littler certainly doesn’t look 16, so his mom released his birth certificate to prove he was born in 2007.

Luke Littler took the sports world by storm this week as he advanced his way to the PDC World Darts Championship final. Everyone loves an underdog story; this one involved a 16-year-old competing against and beating some of the greatest dart players in the world in the most prestigious darts competition before falling to No. 1-ranked Luke Humphries.

Monikered Luke “the Nuke,” Littler became the youngest player to ever win a match at the tournament, according to ESPN. He led Humphries 4-2, but the top-ranked player won five straight sets to get the title.

Littler has been increasingly recognized when he ventures outside, with fans stopping him at the Arsenal game and Tottenham Spurs player James Maddison posing for a picture and bringing a sign to the championship.

But beyond that, the real reason Littler has grabbed the attention of so many is that, for a 16-year-old, he arguably does not look 16.

In this photo, taken five years ago, he was 11:

People on social media were making jokes about how old he looks, which he says have been “going on for years,” and he now “laughs off” the jokes, according to Daily Mail. But it went so far that his mother released a picture of his birth certificate to prove once and for all that this teenager was, in fact, born in the year 2007.

Read more about Littler’s magical run at ESPN and the Guardian.