Bullseye! Longford darts player makes his mark on world stage

A young and ambitious Longford darts player has made his mark on the world stage.

Killoe’s Micheál Smyth (17), or Mick ‘The Javelin’ Smyth when he is performing with the arrows, is a son of Patricia and Connor Smyth.

Micheál is a Leaving Cert student in Moyne Community School and from November 26 to December 2, he represented the Irish A darts junior team in the Junior Darts Competition (JDC) in Gibraltar where he reached the last eight in the world in the team event with his team mates James Morris, Kyle Greene and Shane Long.

Micheál is a member of the Athlone Darts Academy where he started playing with them from age 10 years old. He travels to Athlone every Friday night to train. He is also part of the Westmeath youth team which are current West Coast Champions 2023.

After facing the best in the world, including players from Germany, Belgium, Scotland and USA, Micheál now hopes to go onto senior level.

He hopes to make the Westmeath county team locally and hopefully go onto Q-school in England and gain a tour card to play on the big stage in the Ally Pally in senior PDC.

This was Mick ‘The Javelin’ Smyth first time being called up to international duty. He had qualified during the Covid period but never got to travel as the event was cancelled.

So ‘The Javelin’ was very thrilled and honoured to qualify and represent his club and country, and best wishes to him for the future.