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Local darts in Uzbekistan is seeking for growth with Kazakhstan

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Last month AsianDarts published an article about darts in Kazakhstan. Through the publishing of that article, I was also able to learn more about the neighbouring country Uzbekistan and their darts community. The organizers of both countries are now joining forces to grow darts in both countries. But first, let’s talk about darts in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan is a country with a very small darts community. There are no big tournaments  but only regional ones in small towns. Maksim Kim organized a lot of  tournaments in the Sirdarya region. Maksim organized small competitions in his town, but he also travelled to Almaty (17 hours by train) to join the Shakespeare Cup tournaments in Kazakhstan. Asking why, Maksim says he wants to get better at darts and he’s happy to join the Shakespeare Cup in Almaty for that. The first time he visited Almaty, he went together with one of Uzbekistan’s best and most active ladies players, Zarema Seitova. Together they won silver in the pairs competition, making name for themselves. On top of that, Zarema won gold at the Ladies Competition and Maksim won gold at the Main Competition.

Zarema Seitova with her gold medal

The amount of players playing in the tournaments in Uzbekistan are about 30 men and 9 women. They all live in the same district as Maksim and during those tournaments, the participants also tend to eat a meal together, making it a fun day among a tight community.

But in such a small darts-country, how did Maksim even start playing darts? Where did his interest for the sport come from?

His darts journey starts way back in 1993, when Maksim first picked up a dart. In 1996 he became Champion of Sirdarya town and later that year he won Silver in the Syrdaria Regional tournament (there is both a region and a city of Sirdarya). In 1997 he quit darts because of personal reasons like marriage and family. In Uzbekistan, darts was at it’s peak in 1996 and stayed kind of popular until 2010. After that, the interest for darts faded away in Uzbekistan, leaving only regional tournaments in Sirdarya. In 2019, Maksim decided to pick up darts seriously again, organizing tournaments and training on daily base.

Maksim after winning first place.

On a central level, there hardly is anything being organized for darts in Uzbekistan. There is a federation which created a website, but there is no activity in the country yet. All dartsplayers of Uzbekistan are waiting for the federation to start working. Maksim recently moved to Kazakhstan to help with building a darts academy in Almaty. Together with Yelzhan Maulenov and Mukhambetov Alimzhan he tries to make darts in Kazakhstan even more popular and they’re trying to grow the sport over there. Asking if there are any plans to grow the sport in Uzbekistan as well, they answer: ‘Yes, we plan to enlarge DARTS Academy darts-clubs appearance in Tashkent (UZ), Sirdarya (UZ) and also other cities in Kazakhstan. We have contacts to discuss, but unfortunately no real starts as for now.’

Maksim is still helping other organizers of local tournaments in Uzbekistan from a distance, so that the tight community is staying strong. And who knows, maybe in the future darts in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan will thrive again.

Impression of darts in Uzbekistan

Bullseye in Kazakhstan: Playing the Asian Tour, the past and the growing passion for darts

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On January 13th 2024, something really exciting happened: For the first time, a player from Kazakhstan participated in the PDC Asian Tour. Violetta Chsherbakova participated in Asian Tour 02, which was held in Dubai. In 2020, AsianDarts was made as a platform for darts in as many Asian countries possible, but it’s not always easy to find the right information on darts in certain countries. But after months of preparation, searching, translating, talking and interviewing, I am proud to have written an article about darts in Kazakhstan. Please enjoy.

Picture: Grouppicture with players at the 2nd Shakespeare Darts Cup

First, let’s start in 1989 when Kazakhstan was part of the the Soviet-Union, or the USSR. This year, the Wall of Berlin fell and East and West Germany became one united country again. After that more and more regions of the Soviet Union started declaring their independency, with Kazakhstan doing so in 1990. In 1991 the USSR dissolved and Kazakhstan became one of the new countries in Asia. Violetta Chsherbakova, the first player from Kazakhstan on the Asian Tour, was actually born in the USSR. ‘My city was given to Kazakhstan in 1991 and therefor I’ve been a citizen from Kazakhstan since 1991. I used to work in a casino and my hobbies were playing hockey, soccer and helping my father out in the garage. Seeing a dartboard for the first time reminded me of those hobbies, and my love for numbers’. Chsherbakova started playing darts when she lived in Abu Dhabi, so she has never played darts in Kazakhstan before. In Abu Dhabi, she plays local leagues among the men, trying to combine this with being a single mother of two. ‘The plan was originally to fly to the Philippines to play there as well, but the plans changed at the last moment. I can be hard to manage, so I was only able to play in Asian Tour 02.’

In 1994, American ‘John Strafford’ moved to Kazakhstan for work. He was already playing darts in the USA before he moved and started playing darts on Saturdays at KIMEP University. Anyone willing to pay the fee was welcome, so not just students. In 1995, Strafford organized his own mini league together with other expats. Over the years new pubs opened and a few of them installed dart boards (but most of them did not have darts to throw with, so Strafford sometimes left his old darts at pubs for other people to play). Mad Murphys which opened in 1998 had two boards and again there were some mini leagues with a mixture of locals and expats. Strafford: ‘Some very good darts players from the Kazakhstan Darts Team would play and there were some competitions organized at different venues. The ladies champion of Kazakhstan played a lot of tournaments and really tried to push the sports. But the sports in Kazakhstan that actually got pushed by the government are tennis and golf. There is a lot of interest in Martial Arts as well.’ In Kazakhstan, the National Darts Federation is part of the Archery Federation and they’re not planning to invest in darts anytime soon. Yelzhan Maulenov, the main organizer of the Shakespear Cup in Almaty, confirms this: ‘We contacted them multiple times, but we stopped our attempts. They’re not dealing with darts currently’.

Picture: Shakespeare Pub

Maulenov, together with a group of other darts enthousiasts, didn’t give up and went to the Shakespeare Pub to ask if it was okay to hold a couple of tournaments at the pub. With their own time and money, they gave it a try and now there have been two succesful editions of the tournament, which also holds a ranking. During the second tournament, not only expats and locals played, but also players from other parts of Kazahkstan like Astana (the current capital). Even two players from Uzbekistan joined the tournament and ended up runner up at the pairs competition and winning the Main Tournament and the Women’s Tournament. ‘Actually we were hoping for some players from Mongolia to come to the 3rd tournament, but they will play at the Nippon Darts Festival which is held on the same days. So maybe next time.’

Picture: The Shakespeare Darts Cup, players in action

Will it be possible for Kazakhstan to get darts to the next level? The Shakespeare Cup is becoming more and more international and is an Open Tournament as well. Everyone can participate in it. Strafford says: ‘This group of organizers and players are mainly younger people. If they keep this up, I can see them getting darts to the next level in a couple of years.’ Maulenov would be interested in working towards joining the WDF in the future, but this could be very hard due to the national federation and the government not showing any interest in darts at all.

So a lot has happened to darts in Kazakhstan over the past 35 years, sometimes being more popular than other times. But now it seems that darts in Kazakhstan is on the rise again, with the first player on the Asian Tour playing for the country and the hard work of the Shakespeare Darts Club.

The third Shakespeare Tournament will be held on 17-18th August 2024. For anyone wishing to join, the location is: The Shakespeare Pub at Almaty, Dostyk Ave., 40 . Participation fee is 5000 tenge.

Recaps from the previous two tournaments can be found here on YouTube.

Special thanks for this article goes out to Nitin Kumar, Violetta Chsherbakova, Yelzhan Maulenov and John Strafford for getting me in touch with the right people, their time and dedication to answer questions as well as sending all the information on the Shakespear Cup, pictures, etc. It wouldn’t have been possible without all of you!

A Tribute to Momo Zhou (31)

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Shocking news has arrived at the darts community as Momo Zhou has passed away at the age of 31 years old. She was without doubt one of the best Chinese players, the best Chinese ladies player and one of the best Asian ladies.

In 2015, Momo joined Trinidad, a Japanese dartsbrand where she stayed under contract for more than 6 years. At the start of 2022 she joined TARGET (Japan) and in 2020 she signed with clothing brand SHADE. Just before the corona pandemic she joined the Japanese PERFECT tour (softtip) where she played some of the best ladies from Japan. She didn’t play there without winning, check this video to see Momo play a fantastic match against Kasumi Sato and winning that day’s PERFECT Tour.

In 2018, Momo Zhou was only the second lady, and the first Asian lady to play during the PDC World Cup. She played there with Xiaochen Zong, the best Chinese player. She went viral for celebrating missed doubles from the opponents team.

Last year, Momo went viral again because she hit a 10-darter in the Chinese Premier League. This 10-darter had one bounce out, so the leg was near perfect. After that, she got an operation on her arm, after which she hoped to return to play darts with everyone.

Momo was loved by many, and had a big fanbase especially in the Japanese darts community. Her new TARGET darts were announced just one day before her passing and released only two days ago.

I really hope her darts will get an international release as a tribute to her, but they’ll probably be a Japan-only product.

Momo Zhou will be heavily missed by many. She passed away on January 25th 2023, only 31 years young. Rest in peace dear Momo.

Closing this article with a lovely video from Momo doing the three-bull-challenge during the pandemic

Pictures: TARGET Japan

My Dutch Open Darts with Cho Kwanghee

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Note before reading: This is not an objective article. It’s an article about a champion, a great player, a wonderful friend and how I have experienced this weekend.

Remember how I was very excited for the arrival of Kwanghee (I always call him Kwang…) to my wonderful country the Netherlands? Because he was going to play the WDDA Winmau World Championship during the Dutch Open Darts as well as the Paradarts competition on Saturday. I wrote articles a couple of times before about how well Kwanghee plays in South Korea. I also told Kwanghee before he departed that he would win the tournament, because I have believed in him from the moment he got the wildcard and I will believe in him until forever.

Friday (WDDA Winmau World Championship)

Friday I arrived at the venue with the idea of taking some pictures of Kwanghee and a couple of other players. Kwanghee was the first player I met, and he instantly recognized my face. We talked a bit and I promised to watch his match after putting my pictures on the laptop. I ended up helping him all day, which was fun to do 🙂

First round up was Bernard Martens from Belgium. Bernard wasn’t playing his best game, so Kwanghee flew through this game and won 3-0. Second game he played Paul Hampton. This was a tougher match, but still a 3-1 win. Into the quarter finals Kwanghee met Peter Bramley and got 2-0 behind. A 180 saw him getting back and he won the match 3-2. The semifinal was played against Jonathan Hirst, great scoring from Kwanghee saw him win 3-0. Kwanghee got wings during the day and made the final where he met Mike Callaghan from England. Another great game between the two, Kwanghee nearly missed a 170 for the match, Mike missed a 132 finish, both played well. Kwanghee won 3-1 and lifted the trophy, flowers, another trophy, banner and so much stuff he couldn’t hold it, haha. I got the flowers to put in a vase at home. I drove Kwanghee back to his hotel where he got me a big bag of Korean food to eat during my way home. Saturday would see the Dutch Open Paradarts tournament, but honestly both of us didn’t grab a lot of sleep and the players field would increase from 32 to 80+ participants, so another exciting day would begin…

WDDA Winmau World Championship 2020 Kwanghee Cho Merel van Selm
WDDA Winmau World Championship 2020

Saturday (Dutch Open Paradarts Competition)

Saturday I made my way to the Bonte Wever in Assen again. Kwanghee arrived at 9.30 and the playing area was so much busier than Friday with the many more participants. Most of the time, we sat on the ground and trash bin. Kwanghee started out in the L128, didn’t receive a bye like most players did. I remember most of the matches went 3-0 because even though Kwanghee was very tired, he played even better than Friday. The two matches I remember best were the match against Philip Smith, where Kwang got 2-0 up and then it go so, so close in the end. Kwanghee won 3-2 hitting D1 to win the match, I remember being such a nervous jelly and I heard so many people behind me say it was over for Kwanghee… Also the match against Peter Bramley in the semis was good, it ended up in a 4-2 win for Kwanghee and so it was the final again. This time he was up against the Dutch Jaap Pol, who was obviously crowd favorite. Shame for the Dutch supporters (wait, I’m Dutch…) because Kwanghee won 4-0. That means both titles go home to South Korea and another bouquet of flowers went home with me. I have made them into one big bouquet.

Kwanghee hit an 11 darter (I thought it was 12, but some people say 11, some say 12), on Saturday, it was amazing to see him doing so well. With the wins, Kwanghee made history by being the first South Korean World Champ. On top of everything he achieved in South Korea, we say: Kwanghee made history, I teach history.

Dutch Open Darts 2020 – Kwanghee Cho

Sunday

We were asked to do one interview on Sunday so I decided to take Kwanghee to see the other finals which we watched from the balcony. He normally watches these tournaments on stream, so for him to see such a big tournament live was a great experience. Overall, I can say this was an amazing experience for both of us. I’m glad Kwanghee enjoyed his stay in the Netherlands and honored I could be part of all of this. I’ve already thanked most people in person, but again I want to thank everyone who has been part of this experience and made this a great weekend for both of us. All of the staff, de Bonte Wever, the NDB, Winmau, the tournament directors and officials, the photographers for taking pictures and most of all, the players and their supporters who made this such a fun tournament. Also thanks to Professional Darts Korea (PDK) for making it possible to send Kwanghee over to the Netherlands.

Kwang and I became very good friends (I have a good brother in South Korea now) so most of all, I’m incredibly happy and it’s an experience I’ll never forget. I hope it will be possible to get Kwang to Europe more often, and I still hope there will be opportunities for me to do journalism in Asia. I will work even harder now!

*(For everyone who wants to know about why Kwanghee was at this tournament, I recommend to watch this on YouTube, you can put English captions on)

https://youtu.be/EoKiBLbqA4Y