Christian Kist earned himself a bumper payday by firing a stunning nine-dart finish at the PDC world championship – but went on to lose his match against Madars Razma.
The Dutchman threw the perfect leg in the opening set of his first-round match to scoop £60,000. Kist achieved the feat by hitting back-to-back 180s and finished it off with a treble 20, treble 19 and a magical double 12 to send the Alexandra Palace crowd wild and claim the first set.
It was the 15th nine-dart finish in the history of the PDC world championship and first since the sport’s “greatest leg” – when Michael Smith achieved the feat in the 2023 final, moments after Michael van Gerwen had missed his attempt in the same leg.
After the first set went with the throw, Latvia’s Razma pounced to break in the fourth leg of the next set, and did so again in the third leg of the third set to go 2-1 up. The final set saw no further breaks, Razma progressing despite a lower average (90.65 to Kist’s 94.90) by holding his throw throughout the match.
Kist – who was knocked out of last year’s tournament by Luke Littler – will still earn a bigger cheque than he would have got for reaching the quarter-finals. The 38-year-old, a Lakeside champion in 2012, is ranked No 102 in the PDC’s order of merit, having earned just £19,500 in the last two seasons as a professional.
As well as lining Kist’s pockets, the title sponsor, Paddy Power, will also donate £60,000 to charity Prostate Cancer UK and £60,000 to a random supporter inside the Ally Pally for Wednesday night’s action.
Elsewhere, Nathan Aspinall improved on last year’s performance with a 3-1 win over Leonard Gates. The No 12 seed crashed out before Christmas last year when losing to Ricky Evans and while it was not pretty against the American qualifier, he did enough to get over the line, averaging 88.03 to Gates’s 83.41.
Aspinall won the first set but Gates – who earned a surprise win over Cameron Menzies in the first round – hit back by taking a scrappy second set on double two. Gates then saw his opponent snatch the third set on his throw in the fourth leg, but fought all the way in a fourth set where all five legs went against the throw.
Evans was also in action as he beat the Australian player Gordon Mathers 3-2, while Paolo Nebrida of the Philippines saw off Jim Williams in a last-leg decider. Thursday’s action sees former champion Michael Smith begin his campaign against Kevin Doets.
