The USA made an impressive start on Day One of the 2017 WDF World Cup, with the Men reaching the final of the team event, and the Women just being edged out at T16 by the Netherlands.

In their round-robin group, the Americans had to wait while Norway struggled to a tense 9-7 triumph over South Korea.  This result seemed to favor the USA, but things soon changed as we failed to prevent the Norwegians from topping the group with a 9-6 win over us.  With the top two from each group advancing to the knockout rounds, the pressure was on, but that pressure didn’t show as we strolled to a comfortable 9-2 defeat of South Korea.

That set up a Top 16 clash with the highly-fancied Dutch quartet, who dropped just four legs from their three outings in Group 6.  It was never going to be easy, but our girls threw everything at their opponents, and matched them every inch of the way.  A sudden-death tie-breaker looked a distinct possibility, but the Netherlands just squeaked out a 9-7 victory in the sixteenth leg.  Not a win, I know, but it was still a great performance and confidence-booster, and leaves us nicely placed as we head into Day Two.

The Dutch made the most of their win, and eventually qualified for the final, where they will face Sweden.  Losing semi-finalists were Australia and host nation Japan.

On to the Men, and Switzerland looked to be our main rivals in Group 4, but while we were making light work of South Korea (9-2), the Swiss could only beat Hong Kong after a seventeenth leg tie-breaker.  This was something of an indicator of things to come, and a nice 9-4 defeat of the Swiss sent us to the top of the group. Meanwhile, Hong Kong moved into second place, courtesy of a 12-leg win against the South Koreans.  Twelve legs later, the USA had won the group, and were joined in the knockout by Switzerland.

It took only 13 legs to dispose of Italy in the T16, but the quarter-final was a lot, lot closer!  The always-dangerous Finns (who had just beaten the Republic of Ireland 9-4) forced us into a seventeenth leg playoff, but it wasn’t enough, and we were in the semi-final – and guaranteed a medal.  There, we met our old friends from Switzerland, and they were clearly seeking revenge!  Forced into a tie-breaker for the second successive match, American nerves held, and we were into the final against Australia!  Now, we have to wait until Saturday to see if we can go one better than the silver we grabbed in 2013.  Norway rounded out the Top 4.

In the Girls’ Pairs, the final will be contested by the Dutch duo of Layla Brussel and Lerena Rietbergen, and the Iranian pairing of Mahshad Avazzadeh and Deniz Hashtbaran.  Semi-finalists were Turkey and the Republic of Ireland.

The Boys’ Singles final will be an all-Netherlands clash, with WDF World #1 Wessel Nijman taking on Justin van Tergouw.  Bronze medalists are Killian Heffernan (Ireland) and Iran’s Amirali M Goodarzi.

Thursday’s play features the Men’s Singles, Women’s Pairs, Girls’ Singles, and Boys’ pairs.

Full results and updates can be found on the World Darts Federation website.

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