Who do you know Luke Littler is? Or Luke the Nuke as he is also called in England. Have been nagging for a few years now that the major championships in Darts on Viaplay are big, exciting and fantastic entertainment. Over Christmas and New Year, the World darts championship 2024 is in full swing at the classic Alexandra Palace in north London – and the teenager Luke the Nuke is on absolutely everyone’s lips.
He’s the youngest ever, just 16, to make it to the top 16, and you’ll have to look for a cooler teenager (to me he looks at least 22, but typical British dart lads are probably not raised on quite the same breast milk as our body-obsessed teenagers). He seems transparent.
Luke the Nuke also seems completely unruffled, even when 10-15,000 very rowdy and “slightly” over-refreshed dart fans roar like at any better English football match (directed at Luke of course): “You’ve got school in the morning, school in the morning”.
We know tennis players who has a nervous breakdown if someone happens to clear their throat within a three-kilometer radius of center court right in the middle of a serve (horribly reckless). In darts at this level, it’s like competing in the heel itself! You can of course see how players are affected by the dance and the singing and the generally foolish audience, of course you can lose it completely. However, it is very rare.
It’s probably more common that, against all odds, you get inspired by the masked-dressed audience (where this darts “fashion” comes from I haven’t been able to find out – anyone?), and when players start performing as if in a trance, well then you get always the audience with them, regardless of nationality.
Luke Littler may have won the Junior World Darts Championship earlier this year, but as he has played in the first three rounds, nothing seems impossible right now. In the first match, he had a three-pillar average of 106.
What do you play about? Free bira in the bar? Well, not really. The winner in the final gets a nice 6.3 million Swedish kronor, the loser just over 2.5 million. It starts to tighten up over the weekend. You must watch.
The junior crowns play this year’s championship at home. Photo: Adam Ihse/TT
Junior Hockey World Cup at home in Scandinavium, high viewership, great press – the Swedish Junior crowns have opened well with two wins (when you read this you know how it went against Canada last night…).
The person who has impressed the most so far is probably the Swedish national team captain Magnus Hävelid, a real Swedish hockey knave, division 1 player who became an assistant coach in Linköping for a few years. But on his CV you can see that he seems to have spent most of his hockey life on juniors and youth – with great success.
He gives a super genuine impression, expresses himself comprehensibly, it’s solid hockey knowledge through and through. The way he talks about young players and juniors is probably what impresses the most. You both see and hear that he wants to win, but he is talking about young guys and he knows where the traps are and what his role is. Build confidence, build teams, build cohesion. Training!
DN’s Johan Croneman is impressed by the national team captain Magnus Hävelid. Photo: Jesper Zerman/Bildbyrån
I hope we hear a lot more from him during the championship, hear how he thinks about, for example, elite development and the big steps and decisions that nowadays already 15-16-17-year-old hockey players have to take – and which can be completely life-changing. It is a big responsibility to lead youth athletes.
As usual, it is always leaders at this important level who receive the least attention. It’s only the products we want to see – yes, the successful products that is. And what percentage of all those trying to get through the eye of the needle to a JVM, an SHL contract or even an NHL contract at the age of 18 could that be? The chances are rather microscopic, the elimination brutal.
I want to hear Magnus Hävelid develop that with all his wisdom.
Read more chronicles by Johan Croneman:
“Viaplay really doesn’t like its viewers”
“The unique love makes Hellgren one of the greats”
2023-12-30 10:50:21
#Johan #Croneman #Luke #Nuke #watch
