Photo: PDC
The World Cup of Darts will soon be upon us. The Latvian and Swedish team has already been locked, but there will still be a lot to play for in Finland.
It was already known, that Madars Razma, Vladimir Andersen and Darius Labanauskas would be participating at the World Cup of Darts due to their Tour Cards.
The rest of the players would have to be found at the cut off date at June 5, just after the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour weekend in Finland.
However, it is already known that Dmitrijs Žukovs will be the second player on the Latvian team, as he qualified for the European Tour earlier this year – no other Latvian players has managed to do that.
The Swedish team has also been found, as Dennis Nilsson and Oskar Lukasiak both have managed to qualify for the European Tour as the only two Swedes this year.
For Finland the case is a bit more complicated, as no less than three Finnish players have been participating at the European Tour. Marko Kantele has secured himself £3,750 on the European rankings, and Paavo Myller and Jani Laurila have secured £1,250 each.
This means that Marko Kantele has secured himself the first spot on the team. As for the two others, the Nordic and Baltic rankings will have to be the decider.
Going into this weekend Paavo Myller has the advantege, as he has secured himself 925 euros in the rankings against the 225 euros for Jani Laurila.
The teammate for Darius Labanauskas will much likely be Mindaugas Barauskas, as he is the highest placed Lithuanian in the rankings, not to mention, that he is the only Lithuanian registered for the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour events in Finland with the last day of registration being tomorrow at May 31.
Benjamin Drue Reus is in pole position for the second spot on the Danish team. However the young Dane still hasn’t registered for the weekend in Finland, meaning Tom Veje Kristensen will have some hunting to do being 425 euros behind Benjamin Drue Reus in the rankings, as the next Dane on the list, excluding Vladimir Andersen.
As for the Icelandic team nothing has been decied yet. Vitor Charrua is going into this weekend as the best Icelandic player in the rankings with 450 euros to his name. Hallgrimur Egilsson has 250 euros and Karl Helgi Jonsson has 225 euros. Surely things will get interesting in Finland.
Other than the spots at the World Cup the race is also still on for Ally Pally. Marko Kantele is looking good in first position with a massive 4050 euros to his name. In second we have Daniel Larsson with 2375 euros, and then we find Jeffrey de Graaf at 1575 euros and Benjamin Drue Reus and Mindaugas Barauskas at 1525 euros each.
Full program for the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour weekend in Finland:
