“I’m not looking that far ahead” – 66-year-old Deta Hedman reaches 8th World Championship semi-final but refuses to dream of long-awaited world title

At 66 years old and already the most successful women’s player never to lift the world title, Deta Hedman moved to within two wins of finally completing her darting destiny after a 3–0 victory over Scotland’s Sophie McKinlay on Friday at the 2025 WDF World Championship.

The three-time finalist is now into her eighth World Championship semi-final — but the Lakeside legend insisted she is refusing to think about darting destiny just yet. “I’m not even looking that far forward. I just take each game as it comes,” said Hedman post-match, who admitted she had been overwhelmed with nerves on her walk to the stage.

For a performer with decades of Lakeside experience, Hedman’s description of her pre-match tension was striking.

“My heart was just pumping… the minute we were due to go out I’m thinking, ‘What’s happening?’” she said. “I picked the glass up to have a drink and my hands were shaking. The whole of me was just shaking. I don’t know why, because it’s not like I’ve never played there before.”

Even after settling into the contest, she said both players produced flashes of brilliance mixed with scrappy spells. “We both had spasms of brilliance and then we were just like… but yeah, I’ll take the win, to be fair.”

The opening set went down to a deciding leg after early traded breaks, and Hedman’s composure under pressure proved the difference. She then broke early in the second, taking advantage of a messy leg of missed doubles before McKinlay narrowly failed on the bull for a 121 checkout to extend the set.

In the third, the Scot pushed back and forced a fifth leg, but Hedman responded immediately, closing out the match with 60 in two darts to book her place in the last four yet again. “She was just beginning to get into her rhythm,” Hedman admitted. “I just thought if I could get into the game early, put a bit of pressure on, then we just see where it goes.”

With the women’s draw considered wider open than ever, Hedman acknowledged the mental weight of that reality. “If you don’t have a little bit of nerve and adrenaline then… well, for me anyway, I need to have a little bit of adrenaline going,” she said. “But today there was just too much nerves. The darts were just flying and I’m thinking, ‘Come on, get your brain back.’”

Her semi-final opponent will be number one seed Priscilla Steenbergen, but Hedman refused to discuss anything beyond her familiar routine. “I’ve been doing the same thing all week,” she said. “I’ll just see how we go when we get up there. Obviously I would like to be the one who throws the last dart — so we see who turns up.”

Eight semi-finals. Three previous finals. And now, aged 66, Hedman stands once more on the edge of the title that has evaded her for her entire career.

She may not want to look that far ahead — but the story is impossible to ignore.