Darts star questioned by World Championship rival after incident mid-match
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Darts star Madars Razma has called out Kai Gotthardt's failure to prepare after a bizarre incident at the PDC World Championship. The tournament got underway at Alexandra Palace on Sunday, and as the first-round continued to unfold on Monday, a match between Germany's Gotthardt and Scotland's Alan Soutar came to a sudden halt, with the latter 2-1 up in the first set.
One of Gotthardt's darts had split, and he had not brought any spares to the oche – forcing him to leave the stage as he searched for a new set. When the match resumed, Soutar clinched the first set but ultimately lost 3-1 as Gotthardt rallied to book his place in the next round of the World Championship. Despite Gotthardt overcoming his brief setback, the situation perplexed Latvian darts player Razma.
Razma quipped on social media: "How it is possible that a pro player doesn't have an extra set of darts on stage? Some players have 2 different sets of darts in case.". Providing some context, Sky Sports analyst Laura Turner said: "Players will take spare bits, but depending on what's happened to the barrel itself, some people don't have duplicates for their own barrels, they have one unique set.
"I know players who have had the same set for 20, 30 years. It could just be that he needs to find another barrel. He needs to find one quickly.". HAVE YOUR SAY! Who will win the World Darts Championship? Tell us in the comments section below. 'Razmatazz', who reached the third round last year, is gearing up to face Christian Kist in his first-round tie on Wednesday night. A win would pit him against Dirk van Duijvenbode in the next stage.
