From nobody to world champion in one year: One of the title favorites at this year’s darts world championship is a player who was completely unknown twelve months ago. Josh Rock from Northern Ireland is stirring up the arrow sport’s elite.
His story is unprecedented: Josh Rock, 21 years young, from Northern Ireland, is completely unknown in the darts world when he sensationally manages to qualify for the professional tour of darts organization PDC in early 2022. Less than a year later, experts and he himself are already talking about the world championship title.
“Rocky” has now taken the first step on the way to becoming a sensation. The 21-year-old won 3-1 sets against the Spaniard José Justicia on Saturday evening. After a nervous start, Rock turned up the heat when the score was 1:1. His 33-year-old competitor has no chance from then on. Rock wins six of the last seven legs of the game. On Wednesday, the Northern Irishman will face Callan Rydz in the second round of the World Cup. Rock is in the game against the world number 23. Favourite. This is due to his debut year, which is arguably unique in darts history.
In January, Rock earns the so-called tour card, which entitles you to play on the professional tour. Only 128 players are in the illustrious circle. At 21, Rock is one of the youngest. But he doesn’t play like a greenhorn who learns the hard way early in his career.
It’s the other way around. Rock is instantly successful. At the end of his first year as a professional, he had five tournament wins on the youth tour, one success on the Pro Tour, winning the youth world championship and a nine-darter in the Grand Slam round of 16, which he narrowly lost against Michael van Gerwen. It is remarkable how Rock wins quite a few games against his clearly experienced opponents. He regularly not only defeats the competition, but destroys it. His Northern Irish compatriot Brendan Dolan, for example, conceded a 1:6 swatter in August, Rock played an average of 121 points. That’s not far from the world record.
This incredible string of successes in his debut year sees Rock being hailed as a world title contender by darts pundits. Peter Wright, the reigning champion, already sees “Rocky” as the future high-flyer of arrow sports. “He is an extremely dangerous player. One day he will definitely be world champion and number one in the world,” Wright told the darts podcast “Checkout” before the start of the World Cup.
And Rock himself isn’t lacking in confidence either. While other players defensively deal with their opponents’ praise, the 21-year-old gladly accepts the flowers. “My confidence is up to the ceiling. I won’t complain about the pressure of being one of the favourites. I’m confident that I can have a good run here,” said Rock after his opening win at London’s Alexandra Palace.
The Northern Irishman has made it from newcomer to title contender in a very short space of time. In addition to a huge portion of talent, a particularly quick wit could be a reason for his steep rise. At least that’s what world champion Wright suspects, who “gave some advice” to Rock at the beginning of the year, as he recently told “Sport 1”. “I don’t know if he used it or not. But he’s definitely improved.”
As for the secret of his success, Rock himself says that he hardly ever trains at home. Only a few days before the tournaments, but then particularly intense. “I only started preparing for the World Cup on Thursday,” said the young father of the specialist portal “dartn.de” after his sovereign victory in the first round of the World Cup.
Whether it’s really true remains to be seen. Some darts players like to flirt with how little they supposedly train. In any case, the fact is that Josh Rock has a great future ahead of him.
Even if not all the greats of the sport appreciate the bold words of the darts prodigy. Michael van Gerwen has recently reminded the Northern Irishman remarkably often that he has not yet won a major tournament. “Josh Rock is a phenomenal player, but when I compare him to myself, when I was 15 or 16 I played like he does now,” the three-time world champion told Sky Sports.
Rob Cross is more sympathetic to the young Northern Irishman. On the fringes of the tournaments – when Rock does train – he can often be seen with the sixth in the world rankings. The two form a kind of training community. From Cross “Rocky” can learn how to win the darts world championship on debut. Cross won the premier tournament of the year at the first attempt in 2018 at the age of 27.