By Alex Moss
4 DECEMBER 2016 • 4:10PM
Boris Krcmar won the Soft Darts World Championship THE WORLD Grand Final for the first time in Hong Kong earlier today.
The Croatian, who had finished top of the annual ranking in 2014 and 2015, claimed the $50,000 top prize after beating South Korea’s Park Hyunchul in the final.
A sell out crowd at the KITEC, Star Hall watched the first Grand Final since 2013 take place, with 16 of the best soft tip players from around the world bidding to be crowned champion.
This year’s annual ranking winner Paul Lim suffered a surprise early exit from the competition, losing 3-1 to America’s Randy van Deursen in the first round.
Japan’s Yuji Eguchi was the only other player from the top eight of the annual ranking to be knocked out in the last 16, with Adrian Marcelino, of the Philippines, winning in a decider.
An all-American quarter-final clash saw fourth seed Leonard Gates beat third seed Alex Reyes 3-0, while Krcmar also only needed three games to send Lim’s conqueror van Deursen out of the tournament.
Sho Katsumi came from 2-1 down to edge past Mitsumasa Hoshino 3-2 in a battle of the two remaining Japanese players, while Hyunchul booked his place in the semi-finals with a 3-0 victory over Marcelino.
Hyunchul’s semi-final clash with Gates was a less straight forward affair, with the three-time stage runner-up coming from 2-0 down to win 3-2.
In the other semi-final, Krcmar secured his place in the final with a 3-0 triumph against Katsumi.
Krcmar won the bull-up to start the final and recovered from a slack opening throw of 69 to finish the leg of 901 in 20 darts.
The first leg of cricket saw Krcmar prevail 147-138 to establish a commanding 2-0 lead, before Hyunchul responded with a comfortable 261-162 win in the second leg of cricket.
Hyunchul began the second leg of 901 with five consecutive scores of 150, before a score of 67 left him with 84 to force a decider.
After his first two darts found the single 17 to leave 50, Hyunchul missed the bullseye to hand Krcmar a chance to win and he took it, checking out 114 (bullseye, single 14, bulseye) to win the final.
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