2025 WDF World Cup Preview

We’re just a few days away from the highlight of the WDF calendar, the World Cup. Forty-eight years on from the inaugural event in 1977, the 2025 World Cup (sponsored by Caliburn) takes place at Seoul’s KINTEX, the largest exhibition and convention center in South Korea. This is the third time it has been held in Asia following Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2001) and Kobe, Japan (2017).

The USA is one of 47 nations competing this year, and is entering teams in all three events (men, women, and youth). The women will be led by regular World-Cuppers Cali West (this is Cali’s seventh consecutive World Cup) and Paula Murphy (Paula’s fourth), and these two are joined by debutantes Aaja Jalbert (Maine) and Tracy Feiertag (New York). The men’s team boasts even more experience, with Jim Widmayer making his sixth appearance (28 years after his first!), Robbie Phillips (Robbie’s fourth), and Bruce Robbins (Bruce’s second). The lone first-timer here is Tucson’s Mike Neubert.

All four youth players are making their debuts, with Alexis Achgill, Nalanie Tirrell, Jeremy Demers, and Tim Welcome taking to the World Cup oche for the first time.

While the US has had a mixed bag of results over the years, we have made an impact, thanks particularly the American women. They have lifted the World Cup on three occasions – 1987 (Kathy Karpowich and Kathy Maloney), 1993 (Kathy Maloney and Stacy Bromberg), and 1997 (Stacy Bromberg and Lori Verrier).

Americans have won the women’s singles four times – 1983 (Sandy Reitan), 1989 (Eva Grigsby), 1993 (Kathy Maloney), 2009 (Stacy Bromberg) – while Maloney and Bromberg won Silver in 1987 and 1993 respectively. We have won the women’s pairs twice – 1987 (Kathy Karpowich and Kathy Maloney), and 1997 (Stacy Bromberg and Lori Verrier). The women’s team event was only introduced in 2015, and so far, we have yet to win it.

The men have never been able to lift the World Cup, but have won the team event twice – 1985 (John Kramer, Rick Ney, Tony Payne, Dan Valletto), and 2003 (Ray Carver, Bill Davis, John Kuczynski, George Walls). The only other Gold Medal was for Nicky Virachkul’s famous singles win in Las Vegas in 1979. Tony Payne won Silver in 1985 and Bronze in 1989, while Roger Carter won Bronze in 1995.

So, onto next week… Here are the draws for all events. You can follow all the action live on DartConnect

TUESDAY
Open Team
Group 6 – USA, Gibraltar, Iceland, Lithuania, Scotland, Thailand
Youth Girls Singles
Group D – Nalanie Tirrell, Sondos Hassan (EGY), Miriam Mundt (GER), Tsai Yung-En (TAUI)
Group E – Alexis Achgill, Mariam Abdulhafez (EGY), Enerjin Batbold (MON), Merve Hummel (GER)
Women’s Pairs
Group 1 – Murphy/Jalbert vs Forsmark/Jansson (SWE)
Group 2 – West/Feiertag (BYE) vs O’Neill/Dunn (NIR)
Youth Open Pairs
Group B – Welcome/Demers, Calikiran/Aras (TUR), Steinbach/Baalmans (NL), Yu-Chieh/Pao-Hsin (TAI)

WEDNESDAY
Women’s Team
Group 1 – USA, England, Italy, Turks & Caicos
Open Singles
Group 1 – Jim Widmayer vs Darrell Cormier (CAN)
Group 2 – Mike Neubert (BYE) vs Niels A Nielsen (DK)/Jarred Cole (ENG)
Group 3 – Bruce Robbins (BYE) vs ChiYong An (SK)
Group 4 – Robbie Phillips vs Basem Mahmood (BHR)
Youth Mixed Pairs
Group A – Achgill/Demers, Walsh/Nielsen (AUS), Karagoz/Aras (TUR), Yi-Ching/Yu-Chieh (TAI)
Group G – Tirrell/Welcome, Abdulhafez/Mohamed (EGY), de Jong/Baalmans (NL), Aydinalp/Calikiran (TUR)

THURSDAY
Women’s Singles
Group 1 – Cali West (BYE) vs Aoife McCormack (IRE)/Nina Vrljic (CRO)
Group 2 – Paula Murphy (BYE) vs Ko Shan-Ni (TAI)
Group 3 – Aaja Jalbert (BYE) vs Maria Kormancikova (SVK)
Group 4 – Tracy Feiertag (BYE) vs Jeannette Stoop (CH)
Youth Open Singles
Group D – Tim Welcome, Fan Yu-Chieh (TAI), JeongMin Lee (KOR), Badbold Jadambaa (MON)
Group E – Jeremy Demers, Mamoru Miura (JAP), Deacon Swanepoel (RSA), Lin Pao-Hsin (TAI)
Youth Girls Pairs
Group C – Tirrell/Achgill, Boone/Belliveau (CAN), Hummel/Mundt (GER), Hassan/Abdulhafez (EGY)
Open Pairs
Group 2 – Widmayer/Neubert (BYE) vs Ulusoy/Saygili(TUR)/Van Schie/Van Trijp (NL)
Group 3 – Robbins/Phillips vs Prakash/Kumar (IND)

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