Littler imitated Van Barneveld aged three as darts teen faces ex-world champ
Luke Littler has posted a video of himself aged three attempting to imitate Raymond van Barneveld - a day before he faces the darts legend at the World Dart Championship.
The 16-year-old has taken Alexandra Palace by storm on what is his debut at the tournament. He's already translating his youth form onto the main stage and his next hurdle with the Dutchman, who is 40 years his senior.
Littler has shared a clip of him following Van Barneveld's success in 2007 and he was desperate to play like the veteran. Now he's being tipped as a potential winner despite being an unknown quantity just a matter of weeks ago.
The teenager said on social media: "3 years old I used to imitate @Raybar180 when he won the @OfficialPDC World Championship in 2007. 13 years later I get to play the legend himself in the last 16 on the biggest stage of them all"
Van Barneveld is no means the force he once was but maintains he doesn't fear the young pretender. He's been complimentary of his next opponent, comparing him to his compatriot Michael van Gerwen, who is the favourite to win the tournament and could be Littler's final hurdle.
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He said: “I know how it goes here – a few years back you had the Queen of the Palace (Fallon Sherrock), now you've got the Prince of the Palace. When I was 16 years old, I was probably playing with Lego, and if I saw someone like Eric Bristow for the first time in my life I would have been impressed, even star-struck.
“These days, kids have so many more distractions – they have iPads, iPhones, X-Box, all the gadgets – and they can go down another road. But when I see Luke Littler play, I see a young Michael van Gerwen, and all credit to him. He's won the world youth championship, so there is no doubt he can play, and the way he has been performing at this tournament is like he's been on the Tour four or five years already.
“I've heard about the clip on YouTube of Luke playing darts at 18 months old – that's insane. It's not easy to play against him because of how young he is – but he will get a lot of pressure as well, because there are so many busy people around him and he's all over the news. Can he handle all of that? He has done it so well up to now.
“I would much rather play a fast game against someone like Luke than a slow match with no emotion. You want to see emotion in the game, get people excited. In a match like this, you have to play the board, not the opponent.
"That's why I was not afraid to play Michael (van Gerwen), I wasn't afraid to play Phil Taylor – and I'm not afraid of Luke Littler. I had never seen Luke play before he beat Christian Kist, a former Lakeside world champion, in the first round with a 107 average.”
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