Rock's reign is over! Gian Van Veen sends reigning champ packing to reach final 4 of PDC World Youth Championships
PDCSunday, 20 August 2023 at 17:00
Defending champion Josh Rock has been knocked out in sensational style in the quarter-final of the PDC World Youth Championships by Dutchman Gian Van Veen.
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Van Veen managed a 6-5 win over defending champion Rock in the quarterfinals to set up an all Dutch semi-final with Wessel Nijman. Moments earlier, Nijman had already reached the last four by posting a 6-2 win over Owen Bates.
In the other semifinal, Luke Littler and Sebastian Bialecki face each other. They defeated Jacob Gwynne (6-3) and Jitse van der Wal (6-5), respectively. The two eventual finalists will not play each other until November 26 during the final night of the Players Championship Finals to determine who becomes the new junior world champion.
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Results PDC World Youth Championship 2023
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 - | - Wessel Nijman
Luke Littler - | - Sebastian Bialecki
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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- 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
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