The Northern Regional Darts League in conjunction with the Legends Darts Club successfully held a darts tournament dubbed the ‘Maun Open Tournament’ last Saturday.
The tournament attracted 43 darts players from across the country and among them six were from Ngamiland. This year’s tournament was sponsored by Prophet T.P Elias. It was first established in Maun last year after its organisers realised that there was lack of growth in the sport in the district as compared to other regions.
The League’s Chairman, Tjinjeka Kairanderua explained that they started the tournament in Maun after realising that many were not familiar with the sport. Kairanderu stated that as compared to other sporting codes, darts is flexible to everyone regardless of their age therefore it was important that members of public are aware of sport.
He said that bringing the tournament to Maun enabled the participants to get familiar with the sport, gain skills and gave it much recognition like any other sporting code. Kairanderu noted that more often many associate the darts with alcoholism despite it being played at a professional level. The chairman indicated that they intend to develop the sport at grass root level in order to develop IT revealing that they will therefore soon introduce it among different schools.
For her part, League’s Public Relations Officer said that though the sport is not highly recognised in the country as compared to others it has shown an improvement over the past years. She added that the Botswana Darts National Team recently emerged victorious at the Region 5 Games that were held in Windhoek, Namibia in August this year winning eleven gold medals, four silver medals and six bronze medals hence gaining international recognition.
The competition was divided into men and ladies categories and it was open for single and double players. Under the ladies single the second runner up was awarded P200, the first runner up won P300 while the champion won P500.The champions of the ladies’ double received an amount of P600, the first runner ups were awarded P400 while the second runner ups received P200.
Under the men’s singles the champions received P800, the first runner up received P500 while the second runner up received P300.The champions of the men’s doubles received P1000, the first runner ups received P700 while the second runner ups received P500.
