{"id":672453,"date":"2026-01-04T03:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/672453\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T03:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:05:20","slug":"englands-luke-littler-wins-back-to-back-world-darts-championships-as-an-18-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/672453\/","title":{"rendered":"England&#8217;s Luke Littler wins back-to-back World Darts Championships as an 18-year-old"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">England&#8217;s Luke Littler has claimed a second consecutive World Darts Championship at the age of 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">World number one Littler defeated Gian van Veen of the Netherlands 7-1 in the final at London&#8217;s Alexandra Palace to underline his status as a generational talent in the sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">It was Littler&#8217;s third straight appearance in the final of darts&#8217; showpiece tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">He lost to Luke Humphries in 2024, when he was a precocious 16-year-old who quickly became a household name across Great Britain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Littler defeated Van Veen&#8217;s compatriot Michael van Gerwen in last year&#8217;s final.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Luke Littler throws a dart during the world championships.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/77835176bbe9c30cd63a54a864121baa.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Luke Littler is the first player to win consecutive world titles in 10 years. (Getty Images: Warren Little)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;The first set I wasn&#8217;t happy, but I kicked on from there and said to myself, &#8216;give it time and you&#8217;ll find it&#8217;, and it all went to plan,&#8221; Littler said on stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">&#8220;Credit to Gian, he&#8217;s had a great tournament. He was there every set, so I had to take my chances.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Such is Littler&#8217;s talent that many are already wondering whether he can challenge the 16 world titles collected by Phil Taylor, who is considered darts&#8217; greatest player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Against van Veen, Littler dropped the first set in the best-of-13-set showdown but hit back to stamp his authority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Littler never looked troubled, apart from during the brief appearance of a wasp, banging in 180s and high check-outs as he wrapped up victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">He is the first player to win back-to-back titles since Scotland&#8217;s Gary Anderson in 2016.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\"><strong>AP\/Reuters<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England&#8217;s Luke Littler has claimed a second consecutive World Darts Championship at the age of 18. World number&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,7408,393,12182,4884,21102,16,15,194831,60097],"class_list":{"0":"post-672453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-darts","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-final","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-luke-littler","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-world-darts-championship","17":"tag-world-title"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115834619406780623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}