Petersen and Koltsov among trio to secure World Championship return

Devon Petersen, Boris Koltsov and Xiaochen Zong secured their WilliamHill World Darts Championship returns after coming though their respective qualifiers held across the world. 

Petersen, who will make his seventh World Championship appearance in December, stormed through the African Qualifier, thrashing Msanda Mgedeza 6-0 in the final.

The former UK Open quarter-finalist also denied Laezeltrich Wentzel, Jude Williams, Jason Erasmus and Frank Avenant on his way to the final hurdle.

Elsewhere, China’s Xiaochen Zong survived seven match darts as he clinched his second Alexandra Palace appearance, beating Han Xi Cheng 6-5 in the final. Zong averaged a respectable 82.31 against his Chinese compatriot.

Russian number one, Boris Koltsov, enjoyed a rampant triumph at the EuroAsian Darts Corporation Qualifier, beating his World Cup of Darts partner Aleksei Kadochnikov 3-0 in the allocated sets format.

Koltsov, who has four times represented Russia at the World Cup of Darts, will take to the North London stage for the fourth time after failing to progress past the first round in his previous three appearances.

The 31-year-old ended PDC World Youth Championship qualifier Maxim Aldoshin’s run in the quarter-finals, before scuppering Belarusian hopes in the following round. Koltsov battled back from 3-1 down to see off Andrey Pontus in the semi-finals.

Another two qualifiers will be confirmed this weekend as the Development Tour comes to an eventful close, before qualifiers are held in New Zealand, Rio de Janeiro and Austria on November 9.

Photography: Lawrence Lustig/PDC