"Eric Bristow was in the room. Raymond had invited him because he could match his five world titles" - Jelle Klaasen recalls shocking Van Barneveld to 2006 Lakeside title

In 2006, the BDO World Championship final was a Dutch affair between yout and experience as Jelle Klaasen and Raymond van Barneveld went head to head. In the end, it was surprisingly the 21-year-old Klaasen who took the world title on his debut at the iconic Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green.

Klaasen, via the Double Top podcast, looked back on that historic final. "There was a lot of hype around that final beforehand," he said. "I also heard an interview by Niels de Ruiter who said I didn't know what I was doing at all. But of course I knew that. Besides, I'm not someone who panics easily and just calmly did my own thing."

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"I did realize that that final had quite an impact in the Netherlands. Besides, Eric Bristow was in the room," Klaasen recalls. "Raymond had personally invited him because he could match his record of five world titles. But that did Raymond more harm than good I think. It just put more pressure on him, I think Raymond himself is the biggest reason he lost that final."

Klaasen was back at Lakeside for the 2023 WDF World Championship 

In pre match interviews, however, Van Barneveld was looking confident. "He said he would never lose to someone like me who 'only' threw around 90 average," remembers 'The Cobra'. "But what he forgot was that I was very good at the times when I really had to and mediocre in the legs where I was at a big deficit. Because of that I never had a super high average, now I'm much more consistent than then."

"So I knew before that final that it was 50/50. Before the tournament I was asked what my ambition was, a lot of people were shocked when I said I wanted to be world champion. But I always believed in that, I knew it would be a difficult task, but I succeeded," Klaasen concluded.

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