The Mauerner Lukas Bittrich and his big darts dream of Ally Pally

Created: 12/15/2022, 07:00

Hoping for the big hit: Lukas Bittrich (18) plays for the Steel Dart Club Erding in the league and also takes part in many tournaments of the Bavarian and German Dart Associations.

© Fox

When the Darts World Cup starts in Ally Pally on Thursday, Lukas Bittrich from Mauer will be sitting in front of the television at home.

At some point he wants to run there himself.

Mauern

- There's still a long way to go for the 18-year-old, who has been trying to figure well in the men's steel darts rankings since this season.

"If at some point I'm satisfied with my performance, so that I say myself that it's realistic to be able to do something in the direction of Ally Pally, then I'll try it," says Lukas Bittrich in a voice of conviction.

In 2021 he made his debut in the youth national team

The aspiring electronics technician for automation technology laid the foundation for a career in darts in his youth.

Even though he only started playing darts more seriously in 2018, he made it into the youth national team in 2021.

There his nomination was initially ill-fated - he had to cancel his first assignment in October because of Corona.

In March 2022, he made his debut in the national youth team at the International Youth Challenge in Vienna.

That was the biggest event in his career so far, says the Mauerner.

He played in singles, doubles and team competitions and took third place with Germany in the national rankings.

Since this season, which began in September and runs until May, the now 18-year-old is only allowed to compete in the men's category.

In the Landesliga Süd he does this with his home club, the Steel-Dart-Club Erding, which is fourth in the table with five wins and three losses.

Lukas' record in the eight league duels: 12:3 in singles and 5:3 in doubles together with Rene Mehrländer.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

In addition, the trainee plays the tournaments of the Bavarian (BDV) and German Dart Association (DDV) to collect points for the ranking.

He has not yet managed the really big coup, but he has already achieved some respectable successes.

Like at the Nuremberg Steel-Dart Open in mid-November, when he survived the group phase with five victories and eliminated Stefan Plewa in the first knockout round with 4:0 legs.

In the round of the last 32 it was against Karsten Koch, after all German champion in 2009.

Lukas Bittrich was narrowly defeated 3:4, he gave the veteran and later tournament winner a big fight.

Lukas Bittrich is currently ranked 73rd in Germany

A similar fate befell Mauerner on the second day when, after surviving the group phase (3:1 wins), he met Christopher Toonders in the first knockout round and lost 4:1.

In the German rankings, he is in 73rd place.

Lukas, who also works for the volunteer fire brigade in Mauern in his spare time, continues on January 7th in the league against Kühlenthal and on January 21st and 22nd at the DDV tournament in Dessau.

Until then, he practices for about an hour to an hour and a half every day in the training room at home, trying to place his 24-gram Harrows brand darts in the 20 or triple and double fields of the dartboard.

On the one hand he does this because he clearly notices that the feeling is no longer quite there after he has taken a break for a few days.

And on the other hand, to further improve his average - i.e. the average points achieved with three darts, which are usually around 70 for him.

“I don't like entering PDC tournaments with a 75 or 80 average.

So you can calculate relatively few chances there, ”the darts talent knows.

After all, such an appearance would also involve costs for entry fees and travel, so participation should make sense, says Lukas Bittrich.

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My space

Excited in front of the TV: His big role model is Michael van Gerwen

His great role model Michael van Gerwen will definitely not leave empty-handed at the Darts World Championships in London next week.

Because even the losers of the first round still get 7,500 pounds - and the Dutchman will only get into the second round on December 21st anyway, where elimination will be sweetened with 15,000 pounds.

If Lukas has his way, van Gerwen would be in the final on January 3rd and celebrate his fourth World Cup title.

But it is difficult to say who is the favorite to succeed Peter Wright this year, emphasizes the darts youngster from Mauer.

The 18-year-old right-hander has a lot of confidence in the three German World Cup participants.

He believes that at least the third round is feasible for Gabriel Clemens, Martin Schindler and Florian Hempel - and after that one or two of them could definitely go one more round.

Of course, Lukas Bittrich is keeping his fingers crossed for them and will watch on TV which way he hopefully has to take for his future walk-on at Ally Pally.

Joseph Fuchs