It's been over half a year now since Michael Smith fulfilled his destiny and won the PDC World Darts Championship. Recently, he's reflected on how his life has changed.
"I've seen the Worlds back a few times but it' a few months ago now, from when I won it so I just want to keep moving forward," 'Bullyboy' says in an interview with his new suppliers, Shot Darts. "The past is the past. I know I've won it, it's about working harder than I ever have done before to try and get another one and another one. I want to finish as a multiple world champion."
For a long time it looked as if that date would never come after repeated near misses. "I lost nine majors in a row, that's something you'll never forget," Smith says. "When I won the Grand Slam you'd think I'd forget things like that but you don't. It helped me not lose sight of where I've come from. If I'd have lost that one it could have finished me but luckily I didn't."
Alongside the massive prize money and the pride of being able to call yourself the champion of the world, is all the extra interviews that comes with that. Everyone wants to talk with the new face of darts and that's not something Smith has totally enjoyed.
"It's not just about playing darts anymore. There's a lot more media commitments and different aspects of PDC," he explains. "People have said in the past that players lose the world final on purpose to avoid all that but I'd win it again a thousand times even if it meant I had to do all this again. If you're not busy you're doing something wrong so the fact I am means I must be doing something right."