Darts player Kai Gotthardt was forced to walk off stage during his shock first-round win at the PDC World Championship.
The German surprisingly got the better of Scotland’s Alan Soutar at Alexandra Palace during Monday’s afternoon session.
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However, the match was paused after just three legs for a bizarre reason.
After collecting his darts from the board, Gotthardt noticed one of his arrows had snapped.
‘The Tunnel’ was left shaking his head as he approached the referee for assistance.
Both Gotthardt and the referee then left the stage as the 29-year-old signalled to someone in the crowd to bring him a new set.
Sky Sports’ cameras then showed the Ally Pally debutant walking around backstage as the delay continued.
Meanwhile, Soutar was left interacting with the crowd during the stoppage in play.
“I’ve seen points snap. Initially I thought it was the point that snapped. It was the actual barrel!” darts commentator Chris Mason said.
“The design of darts are a lot different now where they’re fusing different elements of tungsten together to make the darts heavier at the back or heavier at the front.
“Sometimes when they’re being manufactured they may have had a weak spot.
“What most players will do is they’ll have a whole spare set in your case if a point snaps.
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“The design of points now are crazy. They’ll have grooves in them. They’ll have areas of grip in them for players who may hold the point with their finger.
“So they can be prone to snapping. But all you’d do is you’d have a dart already with the stem and flight ready to go.
“Sometimes you could snap a stem and it’d stay in the barrel. You’d just have a spare set up ready to go that you’ve practised with and they’re relatively well worn in.
“But to walk off stage and grab a completely different set of darts mid-game, never seen that happen before, ever.”
Once Gotthardt finally returned to the stage, he took no time at all to settle into using his new darts.
He recovered to win the leg and break Soutar’s throw, levelling the first set at 2-2.
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However, ‘Soots’ went on to win the following leg, clinching the opening set in their race to three in the process.
His opponent hit back to take the second set 3-1 and level the match.
And against the odds Gotthardt claimed a mini-upset victory as he won 3-1 to book his place in the second round.
Gotthardt was making his first appearance at the PDC World Darts Championship.
He booked his place at the tournament by winning this year’s PDC Europe Super League.
The winner of his clash with Soutar will face eighth seed Stephen Bunting in the second round on Friday.
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