Our Correspondent
Kohima, Nov. 21 (EMN): In a first, a darter from Nagaland, Vikehelie Suohu, will be representing India in an ‘international dart championship’ (amateur) which will be held in Europe next year.
Suohu, who hails from Kohima village, is the only player in the country to be participating at the JDC Virtual Amateur World Darts Championships, scheduled to be held from April 7 to 13th, 2021 at Gibraltar, a British overseas territory in Europe.
The event is being organised by the Junior Darts Corporation.
The 36-year-old shared that he got to know about the event from a friend (former world dart champion), whom he had met during one of his online matches.
In a brief interaction with media persons on Saturday, Suohu said that the qualifying round to participate at the championship took him almost 36 days.
The selection criteria for the championship included live streaming of performance and maintaining average scores, he said, adding that 236 players were selected for the event.
Suohu, who has been playing darts for seven years now, maintained that he developed interest in the sport after a friend suggested him to try it.
"By practicing and observing the scores of the national players, one can easily play the game," he added.
He is planning to give proposals to the Indian Darts Federation and the government of Nagaland, to participate at the world dart event.
Some of his achievements include winning the Nagaland open dart championship in 2014, winning the first edition of Dart Masters 2019 and joint-third in team event in the National Dart Championship 2019, held in Chennai.
Suohu, who currently works at the Nagaland Board of School Education, shared that he is planning to open a coaching centre at home, especially to give training to children below 15 years.
His target is to train them young, as there is less number of young dart players at the national level.
‘Therefore, it will be better if they start learning from an early age,’ he added.