CROATIAN ace Boris Krcmar took victory in Stage Three of the 2014 DARTSLIVE - THE WORLD Soft Darts World Championship in Shanghai, as he edged out Canada's Shaun Narain.
The 256-player event was held in Shanghai, China and featured three-time World Champion John Part, former World Matchplay winner Larry Butler, Spanish star Antonio Alcinas and Singapore's legendary Paul Lim.
Krcmar, a former PDC World Championship qualifier and World Cup of Darts representative, has been one of the leading contenders on the DARTSLIVE circuit in the past 18 months before finally claiming victory in China.
His run to the final included wins over the Philippines trio of Christian Perez, Ronald Briones and Andy Villamor, before he edged the final in the decisive fifth leg of Cricket.
"This is my first win on THE WORLD stage and it feels really great to finally become champion," said Krcmar. "I have been training for this for months.
"I played my best but I also had a little bit of luck on my side. I thought I played well throughout the day, and the match against Shaun Narain in the final was really tense."
Emerging Canadian talent Narain saw off another Philippines star, Lourence Ilagan, in the semi-finals and also saw off American David Fatum and Japan's Hirokazu Osaki in the event.
The Shanghai event was Stage Three of the 2014 DARTSLIVE - THE WORLD Soft Darts World Championship, with Stage Four in Japan on September 28 and Stage Five in Las Vegas on November 1.
The leading eight players from the rankings following the completion of the five events will then be invited to play off in the SUPERDARTS Play-Offs in early 2015.
For more details, results and entry details please visit http://darts-theworld.com/en/schedule/.
DARTSLIVE - THE WORLD Soft Darts World Championship
Pullman Hotel, Shanghai, China, August 17 2014
Last 16: Haruki Muramatsu (Japan), Paul Lim (Singapore), Shunpei Noge (Japan), Royden Lam (Hong Kong), David Fatum (USA), Antonio Alcinas (Spain), Ronald Briones (Philippines), Jerry Salenga (Philippines)
Quarter-Finals: Ray Carver (USA), Perea Jesus (Spain), Deng Yin (China), Hirokazu Osaki (Japan)
Semi-Finals: Lourence Ilagan (Philippines), Andy Villamor (Philippines)
Runner-Up: Shaun Narain (Canada)
Winner: Boris Krcmar (Croatia)
The Final - Leg-By-Leg
701/Cricket/Cricket/701/Choice. Alternate Starts.
0-0 - Narain wins the bull and throws first.
1-0 - After 12 darts in the opening leg of 701, both players are on a finish, and Narain checks out in 15 darts with a 101 finish of bull-S17-D17. Averages are Narain 140.19, Krcmar 136.26 with 156 left.
1-1 - Kcrmar wins a superfast game of Cricket with 130 points and a 5.60 average to Narain's 94 points and 5.0 average.
2-1 - Narain hits a white horse (three separate trebles) in mid-game and wins the second leg of Cricket with a classy 6.40 average and 280 points to Krcmar's 6.25 average and 211 points.
2-2 - Krcmar levels the match in the last 701 game, hitting four hat-tricks on the way to the win and an unorthodox 101 checkout of S9-D16-T20! Averages Krcmar 140.19 to Narain's 137.25 with 152 left.
2-3 - Kcrmar wins the bull and decides to throw first, Narain chooses Cricket. Krcmar starts strongly and wins with a 5.25 average and 200 points to Narain's 3.33 average and 169 points.