FROM stilettos on the walkway to shooting at the oche in just six months.
Next season’s William Hill World Darts Championship will see two women take part in the competition.
The news, announced by Professional Darts Corporation chairman Barry Hearn, comes less than six months after the famous walk-on girls were dropped by the sport.
PDC will also expand the competition from 72 players to 96 and increase the winner’s prize money to £500,000 of the £2.5 million pot.
Hearn said: “The William Hill World Darts Championship has become a phenomenon in worldwide sport given its incredible growth in recent years, but this announcement takes the tournament to a whole new level.
“Moving to 96 players will not only reward more players from our ProTour, with 32 qualifiers joining the world’s top 32 players in securing places in the World Championship, but also gives us the opportunity to expand the international qualifiers.
“We also felt that it was important to guarantee two places for female players, which will go to qualifiers from the UK and Rest of the World.”
World No1 Michael van Gerwen will go from being escorted to the board by a woman to possibly taking one on.
And it will come as a surprise to him.
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In a Twitter Q&A in October, the Dutchman said he believed women would never be able to compete with the top male players.
He wrote: “You can’t compare woman darts and men’s, don’t have a reason for it but just doesn’t happen for some reason.”
The current world No1 in the women’s rankings is Deta Hedman, a Jamaican-born English darts player.
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