During a very busy period for Kazakhstani sport, a month decorated with the exploits of Elena Rybakina, the athletes from the World Nomad Games, the chess players, the judo champions, those competing in the Asian Games, and so on… and of course, Dastan Satpayev, it is interesting that a group of darts players from Almaty has won an invitational tournament against one of the strongest nations in the world, South Africa.
It would pay to get this in context from the get-go: these players are by no means professional standard, in global terms, nor are they an official Kazakhstan team playing an official South African team.
However, competing in the world’s fastest-growing sport – when millions of people around the world are picking up darts and packing out clubs in hundreds of countries, when standards are rising, and the top professionals play for literally millions of dollars every year, when the greatest tournaments of all are watched by millions of people, – becomes a proud achievement for a country which has, in all probability, under 20 serious players.
The dedicated team of throwers, as they are often called in the UK, meets to play a few times a month, at a very limited number of venues. Equipment is often sub-standard, and organising competitions is difficult because of the low number of people who can commit.
South Africa, meanwhile, often sends players to compete on the European tours and has seen its top players do well in the World Championship over the years. The culture of darts in their country is rich, to say the least, and with many hundreds of players to choose from, selecting a team to play against Kazakhstan, albeit online, was not so challenging. The organisers were the Ouboet’s 501 Darts League, part of a rapidly growing African Darts network.
Doubtless they did not send their best players to contest this series of matches. Had they done so, the result would have been very different. But a group of serious, experienced South African throwers took on the Super Sunday challenge, gave it their best shot, and were edged out by the amateurs from a darting country which couldn’t even be regarded as ’emerging’.
The Kazakh team will play Botswana in their next challenge, and if they win again, may expect to receive challenges from even stronger nations.
Ultimately, this isn’t the Olympic Games; it is a bit of fun, but the current trend of Kazakhstani sporting success added a footnote this evening, with the five players now keen to take the sport to the next level.
Who knows where that will take them?
