Kai Fan Leung Interview Part 1 - 'It would be great to be able to play again for my country next year'

In a series of interviews with some players who are gearing up for the Worlds, our next interviewee is Kai Fan Leung. The Hong Kong native who won a recent qualifier to get into the World Championship in a few short days and in part 1 of a 2 part interview we speak about him getting into darts, soft tip and his World Cup debut this year.
We started off by speaking about getting into darts and in his answer he speaks about as well how he was influenced.
'I first played my three darts in mid- 2013. I was influenced by my colleagues and friends at that time. In Hong Kong, there are a lot of darts league, both soft tips and steel tips darts league to compete every week. I actively participated since I loved to play. I became a more serious darts player while travelling to many countries and soon I quit my last finance job in a big UK firm in 2016 in Hong Kong and thus I tried to become more active in professional darts since then.'
After that we spoke about the difference in popularity between steel tip and soft tip in Asia and which he prefers.
'It is very true that soft tips darts is more active than steel tips darts in Asia particular in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore etc where you can find soft tips darts machines in many of the bars or pubs in these regions because of the business acumen. In terms of competitions, definitely there are more soft tips darts competitions in Asia because the mainstream darts machines which we are playing in Asia are invented or developed in Japan or Korea or China. Thus, they are willing to host more soft tips competitions with good prizes and money to attract more business. For example the “World” soft darts competitions organized by Dartslive, there are 6 stages per year and 4 of them are hosted in Asia which becomes a symbolic soft tips darts competitions annually. If there is an Asia steel tips darts tour or competitions operated by PDC or with some other organisation, which I believed there will be one soon with the similar format and payout system as the “World”, I believe it will develop a trend or norm for darters to put more time and effort in steel tips darts. I love to play both soft and steel tips darts as either of them would give me the joy,excitement, and of course headache and frustration in the meantime. It requires different mentality, different practices and techniques. It is very hard for me to choose or differentiate between soft and steel, as I still haven’t achieved my best on both of them to be honest. But i would love to embrace both challenges and to win them both one day.'
Leung made his debut in the PDC World Cup this year and we spoke about that to end part 1 of the interview.
'It was my debut in the PDC World Cup in last June 2017 in Germany. It was also my first time on stage in PDC event televised. I would like to thank PDC for the invitation. It was a completely new experience for me to play in front of the big crowd and also with the camera. It was sad to lose in the very first round against Russia. But they did great as they beat Australia all the way to the quarter final. Hopefully, with the amount of practices and the gain of experience in PDC, I would be able to play again for my country next year again with better preparation'
Interview conducted by Samuel Gill, writer for Dartsnews.com