PETER WRIGHT admits he could have been a STRONGMAN instead of darts world champion.
The seven-times Major winner reckons he was closer to pumping iron than pumping his opponents on the oche.
‘Snakebite’, 54, reveals that he loved bodybuilding just as much as hitting bullseyes before taking up the arrows and ruling the world.
On first seeing darts, he said: “I just watched it as a kid, just on TV, watching the likes of Jocky Wilson, Cliff Lazarenko, and all them guys, and Eric Bristow.
“I just thought: ‘oh, there’s something in this. I like it’, you know?
“But I just stopped watching it on the TV. It wasn’t on much, but when it was, I watched it.
“I used to watch The Strongest Man in the World as well. Because I used to work out when I was younger. So it was either darts or Strongman. That would have been great.
“I just used to come back from school, and I used to have a lot of parents who just brought me like a little gym in the garage.
“I just used to work out there and then go for like three mile runs. That’s when I was fit. There’s still time to transition.”
Wright has vowed to lose a couple of stone in weight to help him get back to the top of the sport.
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He told the Tops and Tales podcast: “We’re just getting our gym and everything sorted. In a couple of months, I’ll be getting in there and sorting myself out.
“Because I think Nathan Aspinall’s got a gym at home, he was saying as well to me, Michael Smith and Gerwyn Price.
“You’ve got to look after yourself if you want to be in the game longer.”
Wright is back in action on stage in the UK Open in Minehead on Friday – as he bids to regain the first major title he won in 2017.
List of all-time Darts World Champions
BELOW is a list of darts world champions by year.
The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.
That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once – Barney also won four BDO titles – and none of Eric Bristow’s five BDO titles are included.
- 1994 – Dennis Priestley
- 1995 – Phil Taylor
- 1996 – Phil Taylor (2)
- 1997 – Phil Taylor (3)
- 1998 – Phil Taylor (4)
- 1999 – Phil Taylor (5)
- 2000 – Phil Taylor (6)
- 2001 – Phil Taylor (7)
- 2002 – Phil Taylor (8)
- 2003 – John Part
- 2004 – Phil Taylor (9)
- 2005 – Phil Taylor (10)
- 2006 – Phil Taylor (11)
- 2007 – Raymond van Barneveld
- 2008 – John Part (2)
- 2009 – Phil Taylor (12)
- 2010 – Phil Taylor (13)
- 2011 – Adrian Lewis
- 2012 – Adrian Lewis (2)
- 2013 – Phil Taylor (14)
- 2014 – Michael van Gerwen
- 2015 – Gary Anderson
- 2016 – Gary Anderson (2)
- 2017 – Michael van Gerwen (2)
- 2018 – Rob Cross
- 2019 – Michael van Gerwen (3)
- 2020 – Peter Wright
- 2021 – Gerwyn Price
- 2022 – Peter Wright (2)
- 2023 – Michael Smith
- 2024 – Luke Humphries
- 2025 – Luke Littler
Most World Titles
- 14 – Phil Taylor
- 3 – Michael van Gerwen
- 2 – John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
- 1 – Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler
