Raymond van Barneveld was the best at Players Championship 5 last Monday. For the 56-year-old Dutchman, it was his first PDC title in a three years. According to Van Barneveld, the basis of his success lies with darts manufacturer Target. They have designed the perfect dart for him.
During the last World Darts Championship, where Van Barneveld lost to Luke Littler in the last 16, the five-time world champion spoke highly of his equipment sponsor's new designs many times. He currently plays with the K-Flex system, a design where the flights and stems are fixed together. That design has received an update after advice from 'Barney'.
''Littler throws for example with size six in terms of flight, I with size two, a somewhat wider flight," Van Barneveld said. "But they only had mine available in an intermediate length and I was looking for something longer anyway. They just sent me those last week. I stood and trained with Jermaine Wattimena on Friday afternoon and again on Saturday, so at first I thought: maybe it's still too early. But it delivers right away. With this set-up (the tuning of the darts, ed.) I really have my natural throwing of the old days back'', Van Barneveld states in an interview with De Telegraaf.
Van Barneveld is therefore enormously grateful to the boss of Target Darts. ''I just spoke to Gary Plummer from Target and told him: 'you really saved my life'. He asked, 'what do you mean?' I said, 'This is what I want, kid.' I don't have to look at anything anymore. It's just going insane."
The Dutch dart pioneer therefore looks to the future with confidence. ''This gives a tremendous boost and feels insane, let that be clear. Because that's what you do it all for," he confirmed. "I had to wait three years to finally be the best again."
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