Luke Littler produced a stunning display to thrash Gian van Veen 7-1 and win the PDC World Championship for the second year running.
The 18-year-old Englishman becomes just the fourth player to win the title in back-to-back years, joining Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson in that elite group.
His second victory in only his third appearance at Alexandra Palace also means that only Taylor, with 14, and Michael van Gerwen, on three, have more PDC world titles than Littler.
And while Littler may still be 12 shy of Taylor’s PDC record, the kind of masterclass he put on against Van Veen is only going to increase talk that ‘The Nuke’ might just chase down what had seemed an insurmountable achievement.
“It’s very special,” Littler told Sky Sports. “We’ve got to keep going, we’ve got to keep adding more titles. We can’t stop here. We’re still on this rollercoaster.”
Littler averaged in excess of 107 for much of the match, eventually coming in at 106.02, to leave Van Veen – at fractionally shy of 100 – trailing helplessly behind.
Having moved into such a dominant position, Littler finished in style with a 147 checkout before letting out a roar as he turned to a crowd that had backed him throughout the final.
With the £1m prize money secured, tears flowed as he was congratulated by Van Veen before he was handed the Sid Waddell Trophy by Olympic cycling great Sir Chris Hoy.
