The NWT’s best darts players are preparing to head down south once again to take on the rest of the country.
And the hope for one of those players making the trip from Hay River is that they’ll be able to keep pace.
The Adult National Darts Championships will kick off in St. Hyacinthe, Que., on Friday with the Canadian Open being first up. That’s scheduled to run until Sunday, which will lead into the national championships themselves on June 26. The championships will feature several events across four days of action, beginning with the Nodor Cup team competition for both the men’s and women’s teams in the morning. That’s where all provinces and territories square off to see who wins the team event.
That will be followed by the qualifier for the World Darts Federation World Cup tournament, which will determine who represents Canada at the tournament in Denmark in September. The NWT representatives will be Paul Morey of Inuvik on the men’s side and Hay River’s Samantha Antoine in the women’s tournament.
Dan Kipling, who will be one of the Hay River players heading to Quebec, said events like the qualifier have been kind to the NWT before.
“We’ve had Brenda Moreau and Keith Way represent Canada in the past,” he said.
Moreau wore the maple leaf in 2008 at the Americas Cup, while Keith Way won his way into the World Cup in 2019 when he was still in the NWT.
The men’s and women’s doubles will take place the following day and that’s where the NWT has had past success. Elvis Beaudoin and Way captured the men’s doubles title in 2019, the first — and still only — time the NWT has ever won a championship at the national level.
The men’s and women’s singles will happen on June 28 with the mixed doubles taking place the following day, which will bring an end to the tournament.
Kipling said it’s always a fun trip and he’s hoping the team will win its share of matches.
“We seem to have similar results to places like Prince Edward Island,” he said. “There’s always the chance for some sparks in there during the week and surprises have happened before, but we just don’t have the player pool like other provinces do.”
A big reason for that? Kipling said Covid-19.
“Darts has done okay here in Hay River, but it’s really slipped in Yellowknife,” he said. “We just need to find a way to get people back playing and getting people interested.”