"Ritchie is the rightful winner, but I am proud" - Jermaine Wattimena shows class after European Championship final defeat

Jermaine Wattimena came close, but he couldn't quite add a first major title to his record in Dortmund on Sunday night. 'The Machine Gun' went down 11-3 against Ritchie Edhouse in the final of the 2024 European Championship.

Wattimena did move up to 37th in the world rankings thanks to his performance though, and is also assured of a starting spot at the upcoming Grand Slam of Darts. Wattimena led 3-2 in the final but then the lights went out and he lost nine legs in a row. "That exciting match in the semifinals against Danny Noppert (11-10 win) left me sour. I barely had time to prepare for the final afterwards," Wattimena told Viaplay. "Ritchie is the rightful winner, but there is a proud person standing in front of you here. So I'm definitely going to take this positive feeling into the upcoming tournaments. I'm sure I'll win a big tournament at some point in the future."

As mentioned, Wattimena did qualify for the 2024 Grand Slam of Darts thanks to his run to the final. "That's a very nice bonus," he reflected afterwards. "I can look back on a particularly nice tournament and draw a lot of motivation from this toward the future."

In the past, we often saw a downcast Wattimena after a defeat, however, not this time. "This was a magical moment, of course I am also a bit disappointed by my defeat, but the positive prevails by far. I want to go for it full throttle in the future to do write that major title to my name."