Darts players claim historic success at international tour

A Mongolian team of 12 darts players returned to Ulaanbaatar on Friday after winning six medals at the 11th Asian Darts Association (ADA) International Tour 2015 in Hong Kong.
It was a historical achievement in Mongolian darts and the team held a press conference immediately after their return to announce and celebrate their four gold and two bronze medals.
Around 1,100 darts players from 17 countries vied for medals in singles, doubles and teams challenges at the ADA International Tour.
Mongolia’s Kh.Odkhuu won the Division 2’s Singles Standard Cricket, M.Enkhmunkh won Division 4’s Singles Cricket Count Up, G.Bat-Ulzii and M.Enkhmunkh won Division 4’s Doubles in the men’s events, while B.Binderya won gold in the women’s Division 2 Singles event.
Kh.Odkhuu and Sh.Gan-Erdene won bronze in the men’s team events in Division 2, and G.Battulga and A.Ikhbandi won bronze in Division 5. In the team event, Mongolia ranked fifth out of the 17 countries.
“The ADA International Tour is a highly-reputable annual competition and we have showed an unprecedented success this year. In previous tours, Mongolians brought home three medals at most. This time, all of the 12 players either claimed medals or ranked in the top five of their respective divisions,” said L.Shinetsetseg, Secretary General of the Mongolian Standard Darts Association (MSDA) and member of the Mongolian darts team.
Mongolian darts sport development has a 22 years of history. The last five years have brought ample success for Mongolians in both domestic and international darts competitions, as highlighted by the team members.
“We have become one of the most competent teams in Asia, which was visible from the tour we have just finished. Other teams have been inquiring about our coach and how we train for competitions and it shows that we are drawing attention more than ever now,” added L.Shinetsetseg.
Three official darts associations are operating in Mongolia, with over 500 members in total. Apart from official members, there are 5,000 amateur darts players in the country, according to the MSDA.
“Companies have started holding small-range darts competitions regularly among their staff on weekends. We are sure that darts will develop even further and many professional darts players will be trained to stand on the winner’s podiums,” said a MSDA spokesperson.
Darts is becoming a popular sport in rural provinces as well, including Orkhon, Darkhan-Uul, Sukhbaatar and Umnugovi, although they haven’t formed or joined darts associations, according to MSDA.