12-year-old German darts prodigy beats PDC Tour Card holders and 487 rivals win MyDartCoach Championship
OtherSunday, 30 August 2026 at 10:30
Saturday marked day one of the MyDartCoach Championship 2026 in Bad Salzuflen. With 488 entrants, the tournament’s fifth edition in North Rhine-Westphalia drew a strong field. Among them were Tour Card pros Maximilian Czerwinski and Leon Weber. PDC Next Gen number one Jaimy van de Weerd also lined up. In the end, though, a very different name took the spotlight.
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Saturday featured the singles first, with the doubles event for up to 192 pairs to follow on Sunday. Play began in 128 groups of three or four. The top two in each group advanced to the knockout stage. Several well-known names fell early. Among others, Jack Langston, known as “TheDartsReferee,” and Marcel Althaus bowed out.
The knockout phase started with 256 players. One of the big favourites, Jaimy van de Weerd, exited surprisingly in the last 64. The leader of the Next Gen rankings lost 2–4 to Leon Remde despite a 92 average. Remde impressed with a 93 average.
Remde had already played giant-killer a round earlier. In the last 128 he beat Tour Card holder Leon Weber convincingly, 4–1. Weber currently sits fourth on the Development Tour Order of Merit.
Jan Schmidt also departed relatively early. He lost 1–4 in the last 64 to Oliver Keßler, who averaged a strong 94.5.
Maximilian Czerwinski, by contrast, reached the last 16. There, the Tour Card holder lost 2–5 to Marcel Hausotter. For Hausotter, winner of the penultimate Next Gen event, the run ended in the next round as well. In the quarterfinals he went down 3–5 to 16-year-old Elias Jahn.
Giant-killer Leon Remde also saw his tournament end in the quarterfinals. He lost 3–5 to Marc Spalt. At 30, Spalt was the oldest player in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Rene Steinhauer beat 19-year-old Kilian Hohnstedt comfortably, 5–1.
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Beat Raymond van Barneveld on the European Tour this year: Marcel Hausotter
The final quarterfinal produced another headline act courtesy of Ben Schneider. The 12-year-old prospect gave Marvin Koch no chance in a 5–0 sweep, reaching the semifinals without dropping a leg.
In the semis, Elias Jahn beat Rene Steinhauer 5–1. The 16-year-old’s consistency stood out, sealing the win with three straight 19-darters. In the second semifinal, Schneider delivered another strong display. Averaging 87 with an 11-darter, he defeated Marc Spalt 5–2.
That set up a remarkable final: 16-year-old Elias Jahn against 12-year-old Ben Schneider. Together, the two finalists totaled just 28 years.
Schneider started the better, taking the opening leg in 21 darts. Jahn replied with a 16-darter for 1–1, but the 12-year-old then took control. Schneider rattled off three on the spin in 18, 18 and a sharp 15 darts to move 4–1 clear.
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Jahn pulled one back for 2–4 before Schneider restored the cushion with a 20-darter. Jahn responded again to make it 3–5, but Schneider would not be denied. A 17-darter sealed the 6–3 win and capped a remarkable day.
The 12-year-old Ben Schneider pocketed €2,500 and perhaps the biggest title of his young career. Most impressive of all: he came through a field of 487 rivals, including many seasoned players and pros.
Ben Schneider’s road to the title
| Round | Opponent | Result |
| Group stage | Daniel Kemper | 3–0 |
| Group stage | Jan Malte Peitzmeier | 3–2 |
| Group stage | Alexander Rekowski | 3–0 |
| Last 256 | Vladimir Kovalev | 4–2 |
| Last 128 | David Isaak | 4–0 |
| Last 64 | Luca Wolff | 4–0 |
| Last 32 | Lukas Klein | 4–1 |
| Last 16 | Jordy van de Weerd | 5–1 |
| Quarterfinal | Marvin Koch | 5–0 |
| Semifinal | Marc Spalt | 5–2 |
| Final | Elias Jahn | 6–3 |
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Ben Schneider underlined his enormous potential. Across the tournament, the 12-year-old, already signed with Target, dropped only eleven legs.
In the final, Schneider kept his composure on the tournament’s biggest stage. He beat the equally 16-year-old Elias Jahn 6–3, sealing the extraordinary story of the MyDartCoach Championship 2026.
Kieran WoodDarts Journalist
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He contributes to DartsNews.com, where he covers professional darts through news, match reports, analysis, and live coverage across the PDC calendar and major tournaments.
A key part of his work is on-site reporting from leading events. Kieran has covered the PDC World Darts Championship in person, reporting daily from the venue and providing first-hand insight from the tournament. During his coverage, he has conducted interviews with leading players including Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, and Gerwyn Price.
He is also one of the leading voices of the English-language Dartsnews Podcast, contributing regular analysis and discussion on developments across the professional darts circuit.
In his reporting, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles when new, verified information becomes available.
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- Why is this the main story? He chose not to compete in loads of tournaments,yes he's number 1 in the world,but he does have to turn up at tournaments! Play the next world championship in Dortmund and see if he turns up!!rick6727-08-2026
- This is exactly what I mean,littler survives the 1st round,I think you'll find a lot of other players did. Can you just report on the real sport,and not just 1 person. I like Luke,but this is getting boring now,as Kevin painter once said to Taylor!! The sport is about every player,not 1 who everyone seems to have put the sport on the map.,which he hasn't,he's just got in when the money is massive. Great as he is,it seems like what's the point in anyone trying,he's going to win everything,unless it's in Germany or Australia!!!rick6726-08-2026
- I mean look, Littler's picture is first,wattimena is second and he won! Level it up. I know littler is fantastic,but the sport was here before him,and will be when he's retired. Any player in the top 64/128 can beat each other,it's not big news. Poor Jermaine,wins it,and not even the headline!!rick6726-08-2026
- I appreciate that littler is a fantastic player,but the top 3 articles are about him. Before he'd thrown a dart in the tournament. Level it out a bit, Taylor and van gerwen soon got disliked as the media could only see them,and nobody else seemed to matterrick6725-08-2026
- The two-point Lucky Loser qualifiers are Ross Smith, Robb, Whitlock, Sakai, Ilagan and Toylo. Jermaine is not on the entries list on Dartconnect for the TCH qualifier so the four from the main OoM are probably Searle, Nijman, Dobey, Wattimena.Scoobedybop24-08-2026
- The two-point Lucky Loser qualifiers are Ross Smith, Robb, Whitlock, Sakai, Ilagan and Toylo. Jermaine is not on the entries list on Dartconnect for the TCH qualifier so the four from the main OoM are probably Searle, Nijman, Dobey, Wattimena.Scoobedybop24-08-2026
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- It's great to see Mark Webster looking well,he's a top ladrick6715-08-2026
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