13-Year-Old Lex Paeshuyse continues to impress with stunning weekend on JDC Advanced Tour

At just 13 years old, Lex Paeshuyse is making waves in the world of youth darts. In late December, the young Belgian was crowned world champion at the Junior Darts Corporation (JDC) World Championship – the youth arm of the PDC. Since then, he’s been proving week after week that his title was no fluke.

This past weekend, Paeshuyse competed in four events on the Advanced Tour in Coventry, England – covering tournaments 13 through 16 of the season.

The Advanced Tour, which serves as the youth equivalent of the PDC Pro Tour, features 20 tournaments held over five weekends. Each time, 32 of the top young darting talents gather for four events – two per day.

Paeshuyse entered the weekend ranked third in the standings and confidently held onto that position. He kicked off Saturday with a semi-final finish in Event 13. A standout moment came in the quarter-finals, where he defeated Kyle Davidson 4-0 with an impressive 92.49 average. In the semi-final, he narrowly lost 5-4 to English prodigy Jack Nankervis.

But the real highlight came shortly after. In Event 14, Paeshuyse claimed his third tournament win of the season. On his way to the title, he defeated four players from the Junior Power League – an elite competition featuring the world’s top ten youth players. Among them was Ryan Branley, the dominant leader of the standings, whom he swept aside 4-0. The final against Scotland’s Mitchell Lawrie was a nail-biter. Paeshuyse missed several match darts – much to his own disbelief – but so did Lawrie, before the Belgian sealed the win with a clinical double 8. An emotional Lawrie burst into tears at the end, a testament to how much was at stake and how intense the competition had become.

On Sunday, Paeshuyse once again started strong, averaging 98.26 in his opening match. However, he fell at the quarter-final stage in both events. In the day’s first tournament, he lost 4-3 to Lewis Cook after missing two match darts at double 20. In the second event, he was again edged out 4-3 – this time by England’s Archie Self. Still, he managed to beat Branley once more, marking his second win over the tour leader that weekend.

Aside from Paeshuyse’s success, there were tournament wins for Lawrie – who posted a 104 average in his final – as well as for Cook and Nankervis. Mongolia’s rising star Tergel Khurelkhuu reached three finals but narrowly lost all of them. Even so, he now sits second in the rankings with 40 points, behind Branley (47) and just ahead of Paeshuyse, who has 36.

The final weekend of the Advanced Tour takes place from June 13 to 15, when the season champion will be decided. One thing is clear: Lex Paeshuyse has firmly established himself on the radar of the international darts scene.