“The 2019 WDF World Cup in Romania was a tremendously successful event and a true milestone in the 43 year history of the World Darts Federation.”
– Mr. Bill Hatter, President of the WDF.
International Updates from the World of Darts
Dear darts friends,
The 2019 WDF World Cup held in Romania was an overwhelming success with 53 countries competing from all around the globe. I’d like to officially thank all those who participated in this wonderful event and congratulate the organisers, our Romanian friends, on making it such a truly memorable occasion for all those involved.
The WDF General Meeting also took place in Romania during which we welcomed five new members to the Federation (details below). The membership also ratified and confirmed their acceptance of the IOC application by signing their letter as confirmed members of the WDF and their acknowledgement that the WDF is the World Governing body for darts. This was a requirement from all our members to advance with our IOC application to recognise darts as an Olympic Sport. Our IOC application consultant was on hand and answered many questions from the floor of the Meeting.
Other accomplishments were the creation of an Athletes’ Commission (formerly the Player’s Commission), comprising five international players and a brand new Youth in Sport Commission, further details of which are given below. Both commissions are now autonomous and will have direct input relating to WDF activities from the players perspective. We are continuing the process of establishing our Ethics Commission.
We are also working hard on developing a viable WDF ranking circuit for 2020 that will lead to our own major championship(s). As the governing body, it is our responsibility to provide opportunities for each player from every member country to compete at the highest level. This initiative is being led by our newly appointed WDF Chief Development Officer, Mr. Richard Ashdown.
This World Cup also provided us with exposure to the Dart Connect system, which was a resounding success with nothing but positive feedback from everyone. We would like to thank David Macher and his team at Dart Connect for their excellent support and look forward to working with them again. Further details of the Dart Connect system and the event statistics are given below.
All-in-all it was a truly marvellous event and we thank you all again for your support.
Bill Hatter, WDF President
WDF Athletes’ Commission
We would very much like to thank everyone who stepped up to the plate as well as other members for stepping in and assisting with establishing these Commissions. They are not only part of our IOC recognition process, but also serve as important platforms for our members.
The meeting was attended by 17 athletes from a total of 11 countries and showed the growing level of interest among the WDF member bodies concerning matters of player representation at decision-making levels.
The Athletes’ Commission will provide all WDF players with a platform of direct representation; a platform that comprises peers who understand first-hand the issues facing players in today’s dart scene, from local league level up to major international events. The Chair of the Athletes’ Commission can then relay such issues directly to the WDF Executive at their regular meetings.
After some fruitful discussion during the first meeting, the following international players were elected to the Commission:
We wish the Commission the very best of luck and look forward to working with them closely in the near future. Thank you again for your support!
WDF Youth in Sport Commission
Here, too, we would like to thank all those who turned out for the WDF Youth in Sport Commission meeting and in particular Dietmar Schuhmann from Austria and Tibor Filyó from Hungary, for their initiatives in kickstarting the WDF Youth programme and bringing like-minded individuals to the table.
With representatives from ten countries participating, it was clear that there was also great interest in the Federation concerning our young people and their future in the WDF.
Though time was limited, the meeting resulted in some very interesting discussions and of course a brief exchange of ideas and experiences from the various countries represented. All agreed that the Federation should focus more on offering our young people more opportunities in the world of darts, not only at local levels, but also regional and international levels.
In the end, the following people from around the globe were elected to the new WDF Youth in Sport Commission:
We wish the Commission and all the other youth representatives the very best of luck and look forward to working with them soon.
The WDF General Meeting welcomes five new full members in 2019
The WDF General Meeting in Romania in October this year saw the introduction of five new full member bodies to the Federation. All of the applicants had already been given interim membership by the WDF Executive after carefully reviewing their applications.
We are delighted to see so many countries express so much interest in becoming a part of our global network of darts organisations, especially now the sport of darts is moving forward with such a global momentum.
The latest countries to join the World Darts Federation as full member bodies are:
As usual, the contact details for these new members are available on the WDF Website.We greatly look forward to working with our new members and wish them every success for the future.
WDF ranking applications for year 2020
We would like to remind all WDF members wishing to host a WDF Ranking Tournament in 2020 that the application deadline is 30th November 2019. All members wishing to have WDF Ranking for their tournaments must complete the respective WDF Ranking Tournament Application Form on the WDF website.
We also kindly remind all, particularly new, members to read the information given on the application form page and in the Rules and Regulations before completing the application. Members wishing to host more than one WDF Ranking tournament must complete a separate form for each application.
Further details are available here: https://www.dartswdf.com/calendar/tournament-applications/
Members are also advised to check the spelling of names in the WDF tables and ensure they are spelt correctly when submitting tournament results, so as to avoid points being split between two names when it’s actually the same player.
If you should discover any errors in tables (typos or otherwise), please only use the contact form on the WDF website available here: WDF Contact Form – Events/Tables
DartConnect: a huge hit at the 2019 WDF World Cup in Romania
Picture Kim Salo
This was the first WDF World Cup to introduce a digital marking system, which was kindly provided by the team at DartConnect. Although the system has been well and truly tried and tested at various events around the world, the World Cup was the biggest challenge the team had ever faced, and they rose to meet that challenge brilliantly.
The use of a tablet with the DartConnect system on it for marking at each and every board meant that every game could be followed, in real time, by team mates, managers, fans, friends and family – from anywhere around the globe. Never before had a WDF event reached so many people, on such a global scale. One of the most practical aspects of the system from a player’s perspective is of course the wide range of statistics made available by the DartConnect system, a small sample of which we have given below.
Matches Legs Darts 180s Team Competition 284 2885 140,326 254 Adult Competition 580 3206 135,729 456 Youth Competition 350 1827 87505 163
Further details and statistics of the 2019 WDF World Cup matches can found on the DCTV Links listed below.
Adult Competition – Men and Women
Singles and Pairs
Matches: https://tv.dartconnect.com/matchlist/wdfwc19mw2
Knock Out Results: https://tv.dartconnect.com/elimination/wdfwc19mw2/all
Team
Qualifying Stage: https://tv.dartconnect.com/leaguestandings/wdfwc/1226/all
Final Stage: https://tv.dartconnect.com/ps/leaguestandings/wdfwc/1226/all
Youth Competition – Boys and Girls
Singles, Pairs and Mixed Pairs
Matches: https://tv.dartconnect.com/matchlist/wdfwc19y2
Group Stage Results: https://tv.dartconnect.com/roundrobin/wdfwc19y2/all
Knock Out Results: https://tv.dartconnect.com/elimination/wdfwc19y2/all
WDF Secretary General sent pdf version of this newsletter by email to all WDF Member contacts 11th November 2019 – website version some changes in DartConnect links and pictures
