Aidan's silver lining in golden World Cup for Ireland

Published on 29 September 2025 at 09:20

IT'S  a measure of the heightened expectations in Irish darts that there was disappointment when Tipperary teenager Aidan O'Hara got just a silver medal in the WDF World Cup Youths singles.

It's not as if Aidan hadn't already enjoyed a golden moment after he and his partner Jack Courtney won the World Cup youth pairs just 24 hours before he lost that singles final to Canada's  Peyton Hammond.

From everything we know and have seen from Aidan, it won't be the last big international win of his career, either.

The same can be said for pretty much every member of the Irish squad that headed to South Korea, and are coming home with a stunning medal haul.

Out of all the brilliant and emotional moments they enjoyed at the Kintex Hall in Seoul, it was actually a statistic afterwards which really hammered home the enormity of what our Irish darters had achieved in the Far East.

When the final WDF World Cup medal table was tallied up, it showed that Ireland sat top of the pile, number one in the world after winning the most gold medals.

It really was truly remarkable, and slightly surreal, to see an Ireland team at the top of a World Cup medals table.

But again we shouldn't really be all that surprised.

The Irish Ladies team came into the tournament as the defending World Cup champions, which in itself could have put extra pressure on their shoulders.

If it did, they certainly didn't show it, as captain Robyn Byrne, Katie Sheldon, Denise Cassidy and Aoife McCormack, stormed through at the top of their group undefeated.

If these Irish ladies were going to win the World Cup again, it was always likely they would have to to withstand and overcome a tough test, which is exactly what they did in their 9-8 victory over Wales in the last 16.

With that challenge out of the way, this brilliant Ireland team went on to swat the Netherlands, Philippines and Australia aside, for the loss of just seven games, to prove just why they are now the most dominant force in ladies darts.

It was their heroics which ensured Ireland finished top of the medals table, but without being greedy, that medals haul could potentially have even been more.

Had lady luck  not deserted the Men's team, they could have come out on the right side of their agonising 9-8 loss to Canada in the last 16, to battle for at least a bronze medal against the eventual World Cup winners Wales.

Denise Cassidy and Aoife McCormack also just missed out on at least a bronze when they lost in the quarter finals of the Ladies Pairs.

To be even talking about medals that got away when this Irish squad is returning with a record haul anyway shows just why Irish darts is in a  great place right now.

And the good news is  it's only going to get better! 

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