Mordekai Deka confident of defending darts title

MORDEKAI Deka the Harare Grand Prix Open Darts Tournament defending champion is confident that he will successfully defend his title at the second edition of the tournament at Ligi Sports Bar tomorrow afternoon.

Deka, who won the inaugural tournament last year after defeating Charles Jones of the high Rave Bees Darts Club said he has been practicing hard and is looking forward to this year’s tournament.

The Harare Grand Prix Open Darts Tournament is the first tournament on the National Darts Association of Zimbabwe calendar and is open to players from all the nine affiliated provinces.

Deka who plays for Msasa-based Cold Cats Darts Club said he is looking forward to the tournament and is expecting nothing short of a victory.

“I am looking forward to the tournament and I am ready. The competition will be tough but I have been practicing a lot.

‘The competition is good for us as players and it allows us to assess ourselves ahead of the new season,” said Deka.

The tournament was first held last year at the same venue as the brainchild of the Harare Darts Association.

Kudakwashe Tore the Harare Darts Association,

secretary general, said they are happy to host the second edition of such a high-profile tournament and everything is now in place. “We are happy that we will be hosting the second edition of the Harare Grand Prix Darts tournament after we introduced it last year. The tournament is an open one and it involves all darts players from all the provinces since it’s an open tournament.

“The idea was inspired by the Great Britain Grand Prix which has the same format where players start by opening rather than closing.

“We are looking forward to more than 60 players to turn up and some from Bulawayo have shown interest in the tournament. We are happy that this year we will have some women competing on their own after we had a mixed competition last year. This year we have an improvement in the number of participants from the women’s side and this has helped us a lot,” said Tore. National Darts Association of Zimbabwe (NDAZ) secretary general Steven Mwarindira said they are happy with such types of competitions as they give players some form of competition.

“As NDAZ we welcome such tournaments like the Harare Grand Prix as it helps in encouraging competition and we are hopeful all the other provinces do the same.