The German darts flight at the World Cup in London seems to end in deep disillusionment. On Thursday in the atmospheric Alexandra Palace, Cologne outsider Florian Hempel was also eliminated despite a decent performance – like two other players from a German quartet that made it to the third round for the first time on Wednesday. He lost 4-0 with almost no chance against Stephen Bunting.
Hempel, a former handball goalkeeper, confidently stormed onto the stage shortly before 2 p.m. to the Brings carnival hit “Kölsche Jung”, but then it quickly ended. Bunting, BDO world champion from 2014 and seeded number 18, played down the 501 twice in just eleven darts.
Although Hempel managed a 164 finish to the cheers of many German fans, he still lost the first set. He was good, Bunting was better: the Englishman scored an average of more than 100 points with three darts and only opened a small door back into the match for Hempel. But Hempel missed his opportunity in the fourth set.
In the second round, Hempel seemed hopelessly behind against the Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh – and then made a sensational comeback. Four Germans in the third round meant a World Cup record, but on Wednesday both last year’s semi-finalist Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler were eliminated.
The last German hope is Ricardo Pietreczko. However, the man from Nuremberg, nicknamed “Pikachu”, has probably the toughest of all opponents in front of him in the evening session (9.45 p.m./Sport1 and DAZN): The Englishman Luke Humphries won three of the last four major tournaments and is considered the top favorite at the World Cup.
Gabriel Clemens was thinking positively again the day after his crash landing against Dave Chisnall (1:4). On Instagram, the “German Giant” presented his 263,000 followers with a bracelet with the words “Giving up is not an option” and accompanied the short clip with the song “Never Give Up” by Australian pop star Sia.