Jack Courtney wins two world titles in Las Vegas

Young Kilcullen darts player Jack Courtney has secured two world titles in Las Vegas this July, writes Brian Byrne. Partnered with Ben Townley, they triumphed in both the WDF World Pairs Youth Champions and the WDF World Pairs Youth Cricket Championships. 

The duo’s success was celebrated at the event alongside Jack’s proud father, Derek.

This follows Jack's achievement at the 2025 WDF World Cup Youth Pairs Championship, securing gold in Seoul, South Korea, and the 2025 INDO Irish Classic Boys’ Singles Champion title, leading to the Number 1 spot in the INDO boys’ national rankings.

In the 2024 All Ireland Darts Tournament in Galway, he won dual gold medals in Pairs and Team events for Carlow Darts Club, and in 2025 he earned a tour card through the Junior Darts Corporation (JDC) Qualifying School. 

In 2023 at the World Junior Darts Championship Cup, Jack won a silver medal, contributing to Team Ireland’s first World Cup final appearance in Gibraltar.

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A gold celebration night in The Spout

A very happy gathering of family and friends in The Spout last evening celebrated Jack Courtney's recently-awarded Darts World Cup gold medal, writes Brian Byrne. He won gold in the youth pairs competition with team-mate Aidan O'Hara.

Speaking on behalf of Jack and the family, Darren Keogh said it wasn't just about the contest five weeks ago in Seoul, but it was the last five years and the support the young player had received from the local community. "From businesses, companies, and individuals, there has been huge support all along the way," he said. "So a big thanks to all those people." Noting that Jack's parents, Derek and Marian, would have made it happen for him anyway, he said the support from everybody made it much easier. "I know they appreciate it very much, and while Jack has dragged Derek to places where he had to take out a map to see where they were, he has also given them memories of a lifetime, something they'll never forget."

Darren also noted the presence at the event of Kilcullen Tidy Towns group members, who had just that day been awarded the town's first gold medal in that competition, congratulating them on behalf of all in The Spout.

Among those celebrating with Jack were many of his friends from Cross and Passion College. The event finished with a raffle for a signed Ireland Team shirt, won by Hazel Spencer.

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Celebration for Jack's world darts gold medal

A celebration is being held THIS EVENING, Friday 24th, in The Spout Bar to mark the gold medal won by Jack Courtney in the World Cup Darts in Seoul, South Korea. The event starts at 6pm.

Jack and his team-mate Aidan O'Hara (above) took the top honours in the youth pairs category at the competition last month. Aidan also won silver in the youth singles.

The Irish national darts team came home from the event with two gold and one silver medal, following the winning of the Ladies Team final by the four women in the squad.

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Jack brings gold to The Spout

Photo: The Spout.

Some of his supporters in The Spout got the opportunity last evening to congratulate Jack Courtney on his World Cup Darts gold medal, following the return of the Irish team from Seoul, South Korea, writes Brian Byrne. CPC student Jack won the medal in the youth pairs with Tipperary team-mate Aidan O'Hara, who also won a silver in the youth singles.

Photo: INDO.

The team arrived back at Dublin Airport yesterday morning, where the Irish National Darts Organisation welcomed them home. The Ladies team of Denise Cassidy, Aoife McCormick, Katie Sheldon, and Robyn Byrne also won gold, beating Australia in their final.

A full celebration night in The Spout will be held in the very near future. CPC has also congratulated Jack and Aidan on a wonderful achievement. 

Final Irish tally in Seoul darts: 2 gold, 1 silver

The Irish Darts Team in the WDF Darts World Cup in Seoul, South Korea, have finished up with two gold and one silver medal, following the winning of the Ladies Team final by the Irish four. Derek Courtney of The Spout in Kilcullen has sent his final report from Seoul — click above to hear it.

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Ladies team face Australia in final in Seoul

In advance of the Ladies Team Final at the WDF Darts World Cup in Seoul, South Korea, Derek Courtney spoke with team captain Robyn Byrne and the team manager Kevin Devanney. Click above to hear his report.

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Interview with Darts World Cup youth pairs winners

Following this morning's gold medal win by Aidan O'Hara and Jack Courtney at the WDF Darts World Cup in Seoul, South Korea, Derek Courtney spoke to them. Click above to hear the interview.

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Irish darts youths win gold at Seoul

Aidan and Jack with their team manager Paddy Cullen. (Images: WDF feed.)

The Irish youth pair of Aidan O'Hara and Kilcullen's Jack Courtney have won the gold medal in their Open Youth Pairs WDF Darts World Cup 2025 final, writes Brian Byrne. They beat the Turkish team in a 9th-leg knockout after a nail-biting, neck-and-neck match, closing the final game in a definitive 0-252.

The two bronze medal-winning teams were South Africa and Finland. It was the Republic of Ireland's first gold medal win at the World Championships. Aidan O'Hara has also secured a silver in the youth singles and will be aiming to turn that into gold tomorrow night. 

Earlier, the boys' team manager Paddy Cullen had said they were "focused, calm, connected, and very little fazes them. So I'm expecting a close game, but I have the confidence."

A confidence that was not misplaced.

Family and friends who watched the match this morning.

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Youth darts Irish manager says Jack and Aidan 'among best in Ireland'

Young Kilcullen darts player Jack Courtney and his teammate Aidan O'Hara are meeting a Turkish youth pair in the WDF Darts World Cup 2025 final this morning, at 9.30 Irish time, writes Brian Byrne. They're already in the silver medal position and hoping to turn that into gold.

Boys team manager Paddy Cullen says they are two of the best darts players in Ireland, describing them as two lovely lads who just do what they do and are very easy to manage. Early in the day, Derek Courtney asked him how they were preparing?

PADDY: Well, we'll relax most of the day. We will give them a little practice on the board before we go in. It's mainly about getting them into the zone and into a relaxed state, and we're not putting them under pressure before they go in. So it's just about calm and relaxed, giving them every opportunity to get ready before the board.

DEREK: They're playing a very strong Turkish pair in the final now. Aidan beat one of them yesterday in the semi-final final of the singles. Does that give them a little psychological advantage, or does that not play a part?

PADDY: Oh, definitely it does. The Turks are an up-and-coming nation, so I do not doubt that they will be very tough to beat, but if you look at our two boys, they're so focused, so calm, connected, and very little fazes them. So I'm expecting a close game, but I have the confidence.

The match is live on YouTube.

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW: 

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Ireland doubly in the medals at the World Cup Darts 2025

The Irish team is now assured of securing two silver medals at the WDF Darts World Cup 2025 in Seoul, reports Derek Courtney from South Korea. This comes after youth team member Aidan O'Hara progressed on day three to the final in the singles competition, which will be played on Saturday night. 

Earlier this week, Aidan and his teammate Jack Courtney qualified for the final of the youth pairs, scheduled for 9:30am Irish time tomorrow, Friday. In his singles matches today, Jack won two of his three games in the round robin, reaching the last 16. Unfortunately, he was defeated in the knockout stage by one of the Turkish boys, against whom he and Aidan will be playing tomorrow morning. Both boys played tremendous stuff today. 

Meanwhile, the girls' pairs competition today, featuring Zoe Burke and Rachel Ivers, ended sadly as they were knocked out in the round robin stage and did not progress to the knockouts. That marks the end of their participation in the tournament, but I must say how impressive they have been representing the team here. They were absolutely fantastic, and I wish them all the best for the future. 

The ladies' singles tournament was an unbelievably high-quality event. Aoife McCormick had a great run, beating a Croatian girl 4-2 in her fourth round. She then narrowly won a really tight last-leg decider against the American girl before her Taipei opponent defeated her in the third round. Denise Cassidy, who has been outstanding all weekend, struggled to find her rhythm this morning. Facing a highly skilled Dutch girl, she was knocked out with a score of 4-1. Robyn Byrne played very well against a powerful Canadian, who was lethal on finishing, and knocked Robyn out with a score of 4-1. Katie Sheldon won her first game 4-3 against the New Zealand girl, then advanced to a tense last-leg decider, which she won. She then went on to beat the Dutch girl 4-1 with a brilliant 87 finish on the bull when the match was very close. Unfortunately, she never got going in her next game against the girl from the Philippines, ending her run in the third round. The girls will now go forward into the knockouts for the team event later in the week, full of confidence. 

In the men's pairs, Gerard McGlynn and Paddy Quinn started strongly, beating Latvia 4-2 in the first round, and then South Africa in the second round, where Ger took a great 138 checkout. Unfortunately, in the third round, they faced an inspired Italian team, who triumphed with a 4-0 victory over the Irish. They were a bit disappointed but played really well. The other pair, Dean Finn and Stephen Rosney, faced a Japanese team that played unbelievably all day, narrowly losing in a last-leg tiebreaker. 

In Aidan O'Hara's singles matches, he defeated a Korean in what was an exhibition darts match, 3-0. He then won against a very good Dutch player, 3-2, before coming back from 2-0 down to beat a Mongolian opponent by three legs to two. In the last 16, he beat the Swede 4-2; in the quarter-finals, he defeated the Finnish young lad 4-1. In the semi-final, he faced the Turk who had knocked Jack out, and both played outstanding darts. Aidan's experience saw him emerge as a 5-3 winner. He will face a player from Canada in Saturday night's final, and that should be a cracking game. 

Lastly, a quick note about the managers: Paddy Cullen has been with the girls all week, just as he has with the lads. Kevin Denavey has been by the ladies' side for every minute of sometimes nine-hour days. The same dedication was shown by Chris Curran with the men's team; their support has been truly tremendous.

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Irish in World Darts, second day in Seoul

The Irish team had mixed results on their second day at the WDF Darts World Cup 2025 in Seoul, writes Derek Courtney from South Korea. It didn't go as well as we would have hoped, after the elation of the first day's successes.

In the youth mixed pairs, Jack Courtney played with Zoe Burke and Aidan O'Hara played with Rachel Ivers, and they had a tough group where the standard was unbelievable. In the group games, both Jack and Zoe and Aidan and Rachel lost their first round matches to Canada and Austria respectively. Jack and Zoe fought back brilliantly to win their second match, 3-1 against Germany, to set up an eliminator in the round robin, where they unfortunately lost to a really strong Mongolian pair. Aidan and Rachel lost their second match to Germany, which put them in an impossible situation, although they showed a lot of grit and determination to beat a very strong finish pair in the last round of matches. 

Jack and Aidan can both look forward to the singles tomorrow, and obviously that final on Friday night. Zoe and Rachel are looking forward to their pairs tomorrow.

In the ladies team event today, we had Denise Cassidy, Aoife McCormick, Katie Sheldon, and Robyn Byrne; they played fantastically — the whole quartet beat Lithuania 9-1, Turkey 9-2, and New Zealand 9-1. The highlight of the day for Denise has to be her 152 checkout against Turkey. They're a great bunch of girls, so I'd say they'll go a long way in the competition, and they'll go into the knockouts of that competition on Friday. 

The Blue Ribbon event of all these competitions is the men's singles, and the standard in this is unbelievable. You have former world champion Scott Mitchell, and I've no doubt that there are probably future world champions on the field. In our first game, Gerard McGlynn, who we had high hopes for, ran into the PDC player Jeff Smith and eventually succumbed to Jeff, who played tremendous stuff and never really gave Ger a chance, although he fought hard. Stephen Rosney, to me, was probably the unlucky loser of the day. He got a bye in his first round match, which meant he had a five-hour wait before he played his first game. Obviously, when you play someone who's already been playing a game, it made it difficult for Stephen. He played well, but it just wasn't good enough and he eventually lost 4-1. 

Paddy Quinn played really well today. He won his first game 4-0, and then he won a second game 4-2, but then he played the Czech guy Adam Gawlass. He's a top-ranked player, and he beat Paddy 4-2, although Paddy did do a 160 checkout in that game. He never gave up, and he ran Gawless right to the wire. 

Dean Finn came up against an absolutely quality Swede who never gave Dean a look in and had him under pressure from the start. Although Dean fought gallantly, he just couldn't get back and was taken out. 

Tomorrow we have the women's singles, the youth singles, the girls’ pairs, and the open pairs for the girls and for the men, so it should be a good day. 

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'Tremendous' day for Irish darts in World Cup

The first day of action in the WDF Darts World Cup 2025 was a tremendous day for the Irish teams, reports Derek Courtney of The Spout, from Seoul, South Korea.

The men's team in the Round Robin group lost a very high-quality match, 9-7, to Holland in their opening game, but they returned very strongly to beat Ukraine, 9-3, Lichtenstein, 9-0, the Faroe Islands, 9-3, and Norway, 9-1, to qualify for the knockout stages later in the week. All the lads on the men's team gave an excellent performance. 

The women's team played their Doubles competition today, a straight knockout event. Katie and Robyn won their first match, as did Aoife and Denise. Both pairs got to the last 16. Unfortunately, Kate and Robyn were very unlucky to lose to England in the last 16 in a high-quality match. Aoife and Denise won through the last 16 and were unfortunate to lose in the final eight. But it was a great performance by the four women.

In the girls' singles, Zoe played tremendously well today and won all her group games to top the group. Rachel won two of the three games and came out second in the group. Unfortunately, although both girls played really well, they were beaten in the last 16 of the knockout competition, but they could both hold their heads up very high. They were absolutely tremendous. 

The highlighter of the day had to go to Jack and Aidan in the youth pairs. They won their group without dropping a leg, doing all the matches 3-0, playing tremendous stuff. In the quarter finals, they came up against a powerful Australia team, and they beat them 4-1, which brought them into the semi-finals. Jack and Aidan then played the darts of their lives to beat South Africa 4-1 and progressed to Friday's final. That final will go live on YouTube at 9.30 Irish time on Friday, so it should be a great final. The two lads were absolutely brilliant. 

There has to be a special mention here as well for the managers. Paddy Cullen, the manager of the youths, stood by them all day, not just for Jack and Aidan, but also for Rachel and Zoe. The other captains, Kevin and Chris, were fantastic with their teams. I've never seen such a united team in all the times I've been involved in sport. 

There are a lot more darts to be played between now and Thursday; my next update will be tomorrow.

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