Newly-crowned world champion Luke Littler will begin his defence of the Bahrain Darts Masters title on Thursday against a man who has one of the most remarkable stories in darts.
Lourence Ilagan, who is the current PDC Asian Champion, grew up in Cainta, near Manila in the Philippines – a small town with a population of around 300,000 people.
In the early-to-mid 90's, darts was becoming more and more popular in the Philippines but in what reads more like a movie script, Ilagan discovered his talent for the sport by sheer coincidence.
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According to the man himself, a 16-year-old Ilagan was walking back home after a long day at school when he passed by a shop where a game of darts was happening.
As he walked past the shop, a dart accidentally bounced off his foot, so he picked up said dart, threw it at the board and in a moment of fate, the dart landed smack bang on the bullseye.
The man who was playing in the shop was understandably amazed by Ilagan's throw and passed him three more darts.
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According to a report from dartsalive, Lourence then hit three bulls, to which the person replied: 'OK, let's play darts!' – and they started playing and making friendly bets amongst each other.
A week later, he joined a local tournament and earned a second-place finish.
"During my school days, I couldn't enter the local pub with my school uniform after classes, so I had to bring an extra shirt and pants to school and change into them before going into the pubs for darts," Lourence told the above publication.
"When I woke up in the mornings, I wasn't holding my pen or my books. I was holding my darts in my fingers!"
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A number of years later, in 2013, Ilagan's life changed when he won the 2013 World Soft Darts Championship in Las Vegas after beating the likes of Stephen Bunting, Randy Van Deursen and Christian Perez.
"I used the winnings to complete building my house," he told dartsalive.
"I am the sole bread-winner for my family and I don't have a regular job. I only depend on darts. I'm a full time darter. So when I get this opportunity, I don't want to waste the money. I put the money in the bank and invested it into my own house.
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"Before that, I could only rent and it's so hard to rent in Philippines as I had to pay for electricity, water and everything for the house. Now, my life is better because of darts."
Topics: Darts, Luke Littler
Jack Kenmare