03 January 2024 , 22:03
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16-year-old Luke Littler still managed to bank a life-changing £200,000, despite losing the PDC World Darts Championship final at Ally Pally.
Winner and new world No.1 Luke Humphries swooped the grand prize on Wednesday, banking a whopping £500,000 after claiming an 7-4 victory in London. Littler and Humphries, both shock finalists after each enjoying sensational campaigns, went blow-for-blow for much for the contest before Humphries spectacularly came from 4-2 down to take a 6-4 lead heading into the final set.
Littler, who's taken the tournament by storm thanks to his brilliance at such a young age, attempted to rally back but eventually fell to a gut-wrenching defeat. The Warrington wonderkid began his campaign by beating beat Christian Kist 3-0, Andrew Gilding 3-1 and then Matt Campbell 4-1.
The quarter-finals saw Littler face his idol and five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld, and he beat him 4-1. Then came a 5-1 thrashing of Brendan Dolan to continue his fairytale before reaching the final by beating former debut champion Rob Cross 6-2.
Humphries, who's now won four of the past five major PDC tournaments, paid tribute to Littler after lifting the Sid Waddell Trophy, predicting to Sky Sports that the 16-year-old will soon "dominate world darts."
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When it came his turn to speak, Littler admitted: "It's been unbelievable. The one negative was I lost too many legs on my throw so Luke could break me. Fair play to Luke, he deserves it."
On moving into the top 32, he added: "I would rather be in the top 32 than play the development tour. I am happy, top 32 and runner-up on my debut, it's unbelievable. I got to the final and might not get to another for the next five or 20 years. I can say I'm runner-up but I just want to go and win it."
Luke Littler lost Wednesday's final to Luke Humphries 7-4 (Tom Dulat/Getty Images)Your turn! Will Luke Littler now dominate world darts? Give us your prediction in the comments section.
Humphries then returned to the mic and said of his opponent: "Luke has been an unbelievable talent - not just on the dartboard, he has been fantastic with all the media. He took defeat so well there. You will never see a 16-year-old kid as down to earth as him - he's just something else. He is one of the best players in the world, no doubt about that."