The World Darts Championship took place from Dec. 18 to Jan. 4 in London, England, showcasing the best dart players in the world, including a man from Hampton, N.B.
Jeff Smith has just returned from competing at the highest possible level in his favourite sport.
Smith made it all the way to the semi-finals at The World Dart Championships, making it further in the competition than any other Canadian in more than two decades. In doing so, Smith turned a lot of heads in the world of international darts.
“I was worried about blowing a heart valve going through, it was really that exciting,” says Smith.
“One thing I have been able to do is handle the pressure on the stage and signing autographs and picture taking and everything else, it’s been fantastic.”
Smith’s co-workers, at an auto-shop in Hampton, say they found it hard to reconcile the guy at work with the guy on the stage.
“Probably one of the first replies I made to him when we talked after the first match was that, ‘I don’t even know this side of you,’” says shop owner Carl Raeburn. “He was that professional, I was truly blown away.”
Smith says being good at fixing cars and being good at darts requires a similar skill set. According to Smith, in both cases you have to be a bit of a perfectionist.
“It’s attention to detail and striving for perfection, you know what I mean. It’s the same thing. I love what I do here.”
He also loves the support he gets while on stage, playing the role of the underdog.
“The best part of the whole trip was seeing how much North America was behind me,” says Smith. “I’d go home and, on Facebook, I’d have 700 new messages and 3,000 friend requests, just in a day or two. The more you see that, the more you realize how many people are behind you and you feed off that.”
Later this month, Smith will head to a competition in Las Vegas. Next year, he will be setting his sights, once again, on the World Championships, but this time with the goal of winning it all.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Mike Cameron
