Taiwan bags gold in debut darts world cup tourney

Taipei, Sept. 27 (CNA) Two young Taiwanese darts players on Friday bagged a gold for Taiwan at the 2025 World Darts Federation (WDF) World Cup held in Seoul, South Korea, held between Sept. 22 and 27.

Taiwanese athletes Tsai Yung-en (蔡詠恩) and Yang Yi-ching (楊奕晴) won the 2025 WDF Girl's Best Champions title, beating out fellow under-18 opponents from the likes of Finland, Mongolia and Turkey.

Both of the Taiwanese darts players were undefeated since they first took the stage on Tuesday, leaving behind a trail of conquered opponents in the wake of their winning streak.

On Friday, Tsai and Yang took the win from the three nations after they became the first team to win four legs at the final in Darts 501 games played over bristle dartboards.

In Darts 501 specifically, players engage in the game starting with 501 points which they have to gradually shave to exactly zero over rounds played with three shots.

On playing on bristle dartboards, the manager of the Chinese Taipei team, Chen Chien-lin (陳建霖), said the material was less familiar to Taiwanese darts players.

As such, Chen said Taiwan players performed at a disadvantage compared to other nations, which made Tsai and Yang's gold all the more meaningful.

Chen also revealed that 2025 was Taiwan's debut to the WDF World Cup, an international competition held biennially since its inception in 1977.

Considering the achievement, Chen said Tsai and Yang's performance at such an international level was extremely solid.

Chairman Tony Kuo (郭金耀) of the Chinese Taipei Darts Federation went on to add that with the young athletes taking gold in Taiwan's debut, it showed that Taiwan is finally reaping the hard work the nation had been sowing over the last two decades.

"They are both so young and have bright futures ahead of them," Kuo said of Tsai and Yang.

Besides the two young athletes, Taiwan's Tseng Chi-jui (曾麒瑞) on Wednesday was first to secure a medal berth for Taiwan at the WDF World Cup Open Singles event between male darts players.

Tseng beat Finnish darts player Jonas Masalin 5-2 on Wednesday and was guaranteed a bronze medal to advance to the Open Singles semi-finals on Saturday, when he could also vie for the gold later the same day should he keep up his winning streak.

For Chinese Taipei's debut at the darts world cup, Taiwan sent out a delegation of eight adult darts players and four U-18 athletes alongside four staff members.