Limerick's William O'Connor chases World Cup darts glory

LIMERICK'S William O'Connor is setting his sights on BetVictor World Cup of Darts glory in Salzburg, Austria this weekend.

The Cappamore man reached the quarter-finals of the Unibet European darts Championship at the in Germany on Saturday night.

Thirty four-year-old O'Connor will now switch his focus to representing the Republic of Ireland at the 2020 BetVictor World Cup of Darts which takes place at the Salzburgarena from this Friday until Sunday.

O'Connor, will again team up with Carlow's Steve Lennon to represent the Rep of Ireland at the prestigious event. The pair reached the World Cup final in 2019, only to lose out in the decider to Scotland.

No Irish pairing had gone beyond the last 16 stage of the competition prior to last year. Ireland are the seventh seeds for the World Cup and will face Australia in the opening round. Ireland's opponents Australia will be represented by Simon Whitlock and Damon Heta.

The 32-nation tournament sees two-player teams representing their countries, with selection based initially on the top-ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit.

O'Connor lost out 10-4 to England's James Wade in their last eight meeting in in Oberhausen.

O'Connor had reached his second individual televised quarter-final by defeating Jamie Hughes 10-3 in a dominant second round performance on Friday.

O'Connor only came into the European Championship event as 32nd seed in the absence of Glen Durrant following a positive test for Covid-19.

The Limerick man took full advantage of his opportunity when scoring an impressive opening round victory over number one seed Joe Cullen on Thursday evening.