Littler and Van Veen set up 'dream final' at PDC World Youth Championship
PDCSunday, 20 August 2023 at 17:40
The final match of the PDC World Youth Championship 2023 will be between Gian van Veen and Luke Littler. By the way, this final will not be played until Sunday, Nov. 26, during the final night of the Players Championship Finals.
ADVERTISEMENT
With this final, the two best players on the 2023 PDC Development Tour face each other in the title match. Van Veen (6) and Littler (5) combined for 11 of the 24 Development Tour titles this year.
In the group stage Van Veen effortlessly won from Tavis Dudeney (5-1) and Jack Male (5-2) and then disposed of Dominik Gruellich (6-3) and Dylan Slevin (6-3) to reach the quarter-finals. Next, the darter from Poederoijen managed to win 6-5 from defending champion Josh Rock, before Van Veen eliminated compatriot Wessel Nijman (6-5) for a final spot after a cracker.
Littler started his group stage with a difficult 5-4 win over Kalem Marsh, but then left Stefan Vermaak 5-0. During the knockout phase, the 16-year-old Englishman did not encounter any problems at all. He pushed aside Owen Maiden (6-1), Keane Barry (6-3), Jacob Gwynne (6-3) and Sebastian Bialecki (6-3) to reach the final match.
Van Veen and Littler, by reaching the final, are assured participation in the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts. Van Veen also previously qualified for the 2023 Grand Slam of Darts by winning the final ranking of the 2023 PDC Development Tour. The winner of the Youth World Championship usually also qualifies for the World Darts Championship, but since both finalists are already certain to compete at Alexandra Palace, an additional starting ticket will be made available during the final Tour Card-qualifying tournament.
Read also
Results PDC World Youth Championship 2023
ADVERTISEMENT
Last 16
Josh Rock 6 | 4 Jarno Bottenberg
Gian van Veen 6 | 3 Dylan Slevin
Owen Bates 6 | 4 Moreno Blom
Wessel Nijman 6 | 0 Nathan Rafferty
Luke Littler 6 | 3 Keane Barry
Jacob Gwynne 6 | 3 Jurjen van der Velde
Jitse Van der Wal 6 | 3 Viktor Tingstrom
Sebastian Bialecki 6 | 1 Bradley Brooks
Quarterfinals
Gian van Veen 6 | 5 Josh Rock
Wessel Nijman 6 | 2 Owen Bates
Luke Littler 6 | 3 Jacob Gwynne
Sebastian Bialecki 6 | 5 Jitse Van der Wal
Semi-final
Gian van Veen 6 | 5 Wessel Nijman
Luke Littler 6 | 3 Sebastian Bialecki
Final
Gian van Veen - | - Luke Littler
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.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Not much of a tournament really,is it? Now they've all pulled out,it's open for everyone. I'm sure if you bought tickets,you'd be disappointed. Doesn't that seem to bother the withdrawals? Not at all!!rick6710-09-2026
- Need to see her take part in the womens tour. She'll break the inernet.medinabello08-09-2026
- If he can be bothered? He won't play darts in Germany yet he'll go over and get an award!??rick6702-09-2026
- 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
- I'd happily pay for a site free of Van der Voort's every squeak and utterance.StraightArrowNoBull19-08-2026
Loading
