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Gerwyn Price has bagged a $ 1 million prize as the first Welshman to win the Professional Darts Corporation world title, just seven years after leaving professional rugby in the 1980s.
The 35-year-old picked up the Sid Waddell Trophy and became the world number after beating two-time Scottish world champion Gary Anderson seven sets to three in the final at Alexandra Palace in London on Sunday (Monday from New Zealand).
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Gerwyn Price of Wales poses with the Sid Waddell Trophy after winning the 2021 PDC World Darts Title at Alexandra Palace.
Price is nicknamed The Iceman, and it was a case of the Iceman Cometh when he scored four straight sets wins to take full control of the match, which took home a £ 500,000 ($ 1 million) first prize.
The Welshman closed out the victory despite losing a key set when he was up 6-2 and on nine darts before returning to win the title with a double-5 on his last shot in the 11th.
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Gerwyn Price of Wales shows his joy on his way to winning the Darts World Final against Gary Anderson.
Price showed his joy – and relief – at taking home one of the most important trophies in world sport, but later admitted: “I have never felt pressure like this in my life.”
He admitted that there were “numerous times that I felt like I was going to lose this.”
“I think it will take a couple of days to sink in. I’m on cloud nine.”
Along the way, Price hit the best set in PDC world championship history with an average of 136.64 in the sixth.
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Gary Anderson bets on a missed opportunity in the early stages of the World Darts Final.
Anderson, 50, suffered an early setback when he missed four shots in a row when he was ready to take the first set. That allowed Price to lock it out the back door.
The Scotsman found some consistency to eliminate the second set after Price missed two double-eight attempts in the final stretch.
Everything was Price from then on.
The exuberant Welshman secured the third set despite Anderson’s 170 finish on one of the legs, and maintained his control by winning the fourth for a 3-1 lead.
He made three straight sets by winning the fifth, in which stage he averaged 101.83.
He then nailed the sixth set for a remarkable fourth on the rebound.
Up 5-1, Price briefly lost his poise in the seventh, with Anderson taking advantage to win the set and close the deficit.
But Price hit back with a 180 in the eighth, leaving him with six darts from 94, to close it out and be one set away from the title.
That left Anderson in the loathsome position of having to win five sets in a row to win his third world title.
Price won the first two legs of the ninth set but missed a doube-10, allowing Anderson to take the third leg, and Anderson took the fourth with Price again without hitting a double-5.
The Scotsman held back, as Price collapsed, winning the fifth leg to force a 10th set, with Price leading 6-3.
Price’s first sporting goal was to play rugby for Wales.
Born in Markham in the South Wales valleys, he represented Wales at the age group level down to the under 21s.
So how did he admit Wales Online In 2018, “it got a little derailed. I was playing and I liked partying more than playing rugby, but I have changed since then, now I am much more mature and much more professional.
“I didn’t really reach my potential in rugby, but now things are different.”
Price has said that getting married and having children helped him “settle down.”
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Gary Anderson fires a dart in his final against Gerwyn Price.
He played professional rugby for the Wales Premier Division teams Neath and Cross Keys, but left the sport at age 28 to attend Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) qualifying school in 2014, where he scored enough victories to earn a card. two years.
Price made a breakthrough when he beat Anderson to win the World Grand Slam of Darts final at Wolverhampton in 2018.
Heading into this year’s world championships, Price had won the 2020 World Grand Prix and the World Series Finals and was third in the PDC rankings behind Dutch star Michael van Gerwen and 2019 world champion Peter Wright.
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Gerwyn Price on target.
Price had £ 1.5 million ($ 2.8 million) in career earnings before the tournament, compared to Anderson’s £ 4 million ($ 7.6 million) in a career dating back to 2001.
Anderson took up darts in 1996 and won his first professional title in 2001 when he took the Welsh Open.
He has since become one of the sports superstars, winning back-to-back world titles in 2015 and 2016 after victories over 14-time champion Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis, respectively.
Anderson had been concerned about vision problems and a back problem for the past two years, and said after his semi-final win over Dave Chisnall that “if you had told me last month [I would be in a world final] He probably would have strangled you and said, ‘Don’t be silly.’ ”
Chisnall had caused the surprise of the tournament by beating van Gerwen 5-0 in the quarterfinals.
