On October 28, the EADC Qualifier for the PDC World Championship was held in Moscow. Boris Koltsov managed to put the tournament to his name for the third time and is therefore allowed to go to London again. Darts Actueel talked to the Russian before the World Championship.
Darts in Russia
Boris Koltsov, born on October 10, 1988, appears to have been a great talent in Russia for a long time. This year the Russian is very good, he won the Finnish Open and the Kalashnikov Cup this year. He has also been playing the World Cup of Darts for 3 years in a row with Alekandr Oreshkin. So these are the best players of Russia, but will there no other players coming up in Russia? “Currently there are players in Russia that you have to think about, but I think they won’t come on the radar over the next few years. The last 5 years the number of players has grown, but it isn’t the level of in Europe or in the United Kingdom. We are in progress but this progress is quite slow.”
Koltsov won this year his third EADC Qualifier, in four years. That says enough about how he dominates the Russian darts. “It’s very important for me to win the EADC Qualifier, because this means that I can represent my country at the World Championship. It is prestigious and important to me.”
East-Europe Tour
Two years ago a start was made of the PDC Nordic & Baltic Tour where the top two after the season qualified for the Worlds. Last season, the PDC announced the Asian Tour. The top four at the end of season qualified for the Worlds. Both tours have been tremendously successful so far. Should there soon be a start with an East-Europe Tour? Koltsov said the following: “I actually have no idea. There are about 4 countries where the weekends can be organized, but that’s not much. There is a small chance that it can be organized in Russia, because there are too few players according to the organization. However, it would be tremendously good for the level in Eastern Europe.”
This year, The East-Europe qualification tournaments were organised for the European Tours. Tytus Kanik, Tamas Alexits, Krzysztof Ratajski, Patrik Kovacs, Karel Sedlacek and Boris Koltsov qualified for the Euro Tour last season. Koltsov made his debut at the European Matchplay, where he won the first round against Robert Owen. In the second round, Mensur Suljovic was too strong. “Every tournament brings new experience with you, even during the European Tour. I played very well, but against Mensur had more resident if I had thrown my doubles.”
Q-School
At the beginning of this year, Koltsov failed to take a tourcard at Q-school, despite a semi-final on the last day. “Huge unfortunately, but I think it’s a great opportunity for any darts player. This shows that you are ready for the big work on it or not anyway.”
“Anyway, it’s pretty difficult because there are many experienced darts players who have their goals and these are the same goals you have. Next year I’ll just try it again”, laughed the Russian.
‘The Viking’ didn’t get his tourcard, he proved his luck on the Challenge tour, the second level at the PDC. That went very well, so he threw the highest average of the complete tour; 112.16. “I participated to gain experience with good British and European players. These competitions show what I have in me and that I can play this level. The goal now is to throw the 100+ averages every match. I will be playing the Challenge Tour again next year, if I don’t get a tourcard in Germany.”
World Championship 2019
Koltsov will start his third World Championship at the PDC next week. He won in his earlier two editions one game, which was against Haruki Muramatsu. How does the Russian look at it now? “A match is a match, everything is unpredictable. The second is experience. You have thousands of people behind you and you have to be ready for it. I want to prepare myself better this year than the previous Worlds Championships.”
The 30-year-old darts player will have to compete in the first round against Chris Dobey. Not the easiest draw he could get, but according to him there is no easy draw. “All the players who participate in the World Championship are the best players on the planet. You can’t underestimate any player, they are all very strong. Everyone also has the same goal and that is to become World champion. It is a very difficult goal to achieve, but nothing is impossible. ”
Darts Actueel wishes Boris Koltsov a very good World Championship in London!
