Luke Littler: World Darts champion says heartbreaking defeat to Luke Humphries in 2024 spurred him to world title

Luke Littler has revealed that reliving his 2024 World Darts Championship heartbreak against Luke Humphries spurred him on to becoming the youngest world champion in 2025.

Littler breezed past Michael van Gerwen in the final on Friday at Alexandra Palace, going 4-0 up before the Dutchman battled back to bring the scoreline back to 5-2.

From there, though, Littler found another gear and romped to a 7-3 victory to become the youngest winner of the World Darts Championship, surpassing his opponent, who won it aged 24 in 2014.

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The moment comes just 12 months on from when Littler missed out on winning on debut at Alexandra Palace, the then 16-year-old suffering a heartbreaking 7-4 defeat to Luke Humphries.

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With that on his mind, Littler admitted he watched the 2024 epic back at 1pm on Friday, around seven hours ahead of the 2025 final, and that he had "visions" of fulfilling his destiny and lifting the Sid Waddell Trophy.

"I've learned a lot. Last year in the semi-finals against Rob Cross, that was the first time I was 1-0 down, then obviously against Luke," Littler said.

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"No one will know this but earlier today I watched all of the game back against Luke and I had the visions."

When asked how rewatching that game helped him, Littler admitted he needed to recap the tough moments in order to learn from his mistakes.

"I kind of knew what went wrong last year. But just to recap and go over what I did wrong, it was probably the right thing to do," he added.

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"Obviously the D2 [miss] was huge because I said it to my family 'if I'm 5-2 up then I'm pretty much the world champion' but Luke won the next five sets and picked up the trophy."

"I don't think I've done anything differently [this year]. But just to come out from the break and see the fans on their feet singing along, you just get involved with it.

"At 4-0 up I had to stick at it because I knew Michael he was right behind me the whole way through."

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MVG embraces Littler and tells him to 'keep crying'!

Despite not putting in a vintage performance, Van Gerwen was ever-gracious in defeat and touted Littler as a "star".

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As the legend of the game and its latest star embraced after the final, the Dutchman told Littler to embrace the emotions of winning on the biggest stage of all.

"He said 'well done' but when he was on the side he was like 'keep crying boy, keep crying!" Littler said.

"Michael deserves quite a lot of respect for this World Championship. Obviously everyone was looking at me and Luke Humphries but Michael's side of the draw wasn't easy and it wasn't easy for myself.

"So for us two to get to the final, it was a big achievement, but for me to come out as the winner, it's even better."

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Watch all the action from the Premier League on Sky Sports with Luke Littler aiming to defend his title. The new Premier League season will begin in Belfast on Thursday February 6 as darts' biggest party returns to an unchanged line-up of 17 venues across the UK and Europe.

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