Jurjen van der Velde (born 4 December 2002) is a Dutch professional darts player who currently plays in

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the World ...

(PDC) events. He is a JDC World Darts Champion, winner of the World Youth Masters and a multi-medalist at the WDF Europe Cup Youth.

Career

Jurjen is considered to be one of the most talented youth players ever and was already able to win a large part of the most important youth titles at the age of 15. The Dutchman made his breakthrough in 2018 after having had very good results with the NDB (Dutch Dart Association) for some time. At the

German Open German Open is a name given to many sports events established in Germany, and include: *German Open (badminton), an annual badminton tournament held since 1955. *German Open (golf), was a golf tournament on the European Tour *German Masters, a snook ...

, van der Velde celebrated his first big youth title. After a strong performance, he only lost one leg in the semi-finals, followed by a whitewash in the final. Jurjen also won the singles competition at the

2018 WDF Europe Cup Youth Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short s ...

, defeated

Keane Barry Keane Neill Barry (born 25 June 2002) is an Irish professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and Youth Development Tour events. The highlight of his career was beating Conor Allen in a narrow 2-0 victory in a ju ...

in the decider leg. In the team competition and the general classification, he also won a gold medals, and in the pair competition – silver. This was followed by victory at the World Youth Masters, where he again won the deciding leg against

. As a result, van der Velde was invited to the 2018 Finder Youth Darts Masters, but was narrowly eliminated in the group-stage. He ended the year of success with a victory in the JDC World Darts Championship against

Lennon Cradock John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

. In 2019, he was invited by the home federation to participate in the

2019 WDF World Cup The 2019 WDF World Cup will be the 19th edition of the WDF World Cup darts tournament, organised by the World Darts Federation. It will be held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania from October 8 to 12. Entered teams 27 countries/associations entered a team i ...

for the youth players and to participate in the

2019 WDF Europe Cup Youth Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

. During the WDF World Cup, he won two bronze medals in youth competitions. In the singles tournament, he was surprisingly eliminated in a semi-finals match against Mehrdad Seyfi. During WDF Europe Youth Cup, he won two gold and two silver medals. In 2019, he also plays at the PDC Development Tour and reached Last 16 phase on his first weekend. Good results throughout the PDC Development season allowed him to take part in the

2019 PDC World Youth Championship The 2019 PDC Unicorn World Youth Championship was the ninth edition of the PDC World Youth Championship, a tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation for darts players aged between 16 and 23. The group stage and knock-out phase fr ...

. In the tournament, he joined the group with Joe Davis and Max Hopp. After two matches lost, he ended his participation in the group-stage. In 2020, he only made the Last 32 phase once in ten events on the Development Tour and his career slowed down a bit. At the

2020 PDC World Youth Championship The 2020 PDC Unicorn World Youth Championship was the tenth edition of the PDC World Youth Championship, a tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation for darts players aged between 16 and 23. The group stage and knock-out phase fro ...

he was eliminated in the group-stage by losing to

Ted Evetts Ted Evetts (born 3 August 1997) is an English darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is the 2021 PDC World Youth Champion. Career Evetts plays for his local Super League team and also plays Men's County fo ...

, but he finished second thanks to a victory over Vilém Šedivý. In 2021, he won his first

event at the youth's stage and qualified for the

2021 PDC World Youth Championship The 2021 PDC Unicorn World Youth Championship was the eleventh edition of the PDC World Youth Championship, a tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation for darts players aged between 16 and 23. In a change from previous years, the ...

. He went to a very difficult group with Kevin Doets,

Rusty-Jake Rodriguez Rusty-Jake Rodriguez (born 24 December 2000) is a professional Austrian darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation events. In 2017, he was the inaugural winner of the JDC (Junior Darts Corporation) World Championship. Career Rodrig ...

and Fabian Schmutzler, where he lost all matches and took last place in his group. In early 2022, he qualified for the

2022 UK Open The 2022 Cazoo UK Open was a darts tournament staged by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was the twentieth year of the tournament where players compete in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament returned to But ...

, despite missing a tour card at PDC Q-School. He defeated

Mickey Mansell Michael "Mickey" Mansell (born 31 August 1973) is a Northern Irish darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Career In October 2010, Mansell reached the semi-finals of a Players Championship in Dublin. A week lat ...

in the first round by 6–4 in legs. In the second round he faced Jim Williams and lost to him by 3–6 in legs. At the beginning of May 2022, he had his second victory on the PDC Development Tour before celebrating his first triumphs on the PDC Challenge Tour in July and September. Meanwhile, in June 2022, he participated in the 2022 Dutch Open and was eliminated in the quarter-finals, lost to eventual winner Jelle Klaasen by 2–5 in legs.

Performance timeline

PDC European Tour

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:van der Velde, Jurjen 2002 births Living people Dutch darts players Professional Darts Corporation current tour card holders 21st-century Dutch people