Limpopo darts teams selected

The cream of the province’s darts players gathered at Mimosa hall on Saturday to take part in the Limpopo Darts Association’s final trials and a possible place in one of the teams that will represent the province at the South African Darts Championships that will be played from 9 to 14 July in Durban.
Susan van Jaarsveldt, Secretary of the association said although the teams didn’t do well in the 2016 championships she was confident that they would come home with a trophy this year. “Limpopo is a small province and only a few people know about the sport. We didn’t have enough players last year. Now, for the first time in eight years we will be taking a junior team to the nationals,” she said.
She explained that they were busy with developing and training young players in the code and she was glad that the province will have a junior team at the tournament. She added that all the trials had gone well and while all the players aimed for a spot in the teams but unfortunately only a few can fly the Limpopo flag high on the national stage. She urged the selected players to play as a team and not as individuals as this would be the factor that could win them a trophy.
She also stated that darts as a sport was not supported enough and that was why they could not get sponsors when they play big tournaments. “We are looking for sponsors for our teams to be able to compete at the nationals. Each player has to pay at least R5 000 to cover all the costs. We plead to companies to assist us financially in order to make competing in the nationals possible,” she said.
According to Van Jaarsveldt the South African Darts Championship gives players a platform to showcase their talents and allows them an opportunity to be selected for the national team. She wished all the teams the best of luck.
At the time of going to press the names of the selected players had not been released.

Story and photos: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za