Wikipedia - Gian van Veen
Gian van Veen (born 23 April 2002) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events.
History
2022
On 4 November 2022, van Veen reached the final of the Players Championship 29 event, losing 4–8 to Gerwyn Price in the final.
On 16 November 2022, it was announced that Peter Wright had pulled out of competing in the 2022 Players Championship Finals. van Veen, as the first reserve, took Wright's place. He lost 2–6 to Ross Smith in the first round.
2023
On 15 January 2023, he won a two-year PDC Tour Card via finishing 9th on the European Order of Merit at Q-School. van Veen reached his first quarter final of the year at the Players Championship 3 event. On 3 March, he made his debut at the 2023 UK Open, winning 6–4 against Robert Owen in the first round with an average of 100.15, before bettering his average to 100.67 in a 6–5 win over Scott Waites. Despite producing a third consecutive ton plus average of 101.68, van Veen lost 6–3 to Jim Williams in the third round (last 64). Van Veen reached his second quarter final of 2023 at the sixth Players Championship tournament, emulating this achievement in the eight event. In-between this and the 2023 European Darts Grand Prix, van Veen picked up a further two wins on the Players Championship circuit. The European Darts Grand Prix was van Veen's second European Tour event of the year (after a loss in the opening round of the 2023 Dutch Darts Championship). There, he reached his maiden quarter final on the Euro Tour stage, losing 4–6 to Luke Humphries, on the back of 6–3, 6–4 and 6–5 wins against, respectively, Josh Rock (last 16), Danny Noppert (last 32) and Jermaine Wattimena (last 48). The check for £6,000 propelled van Veen ten places up the rankings to number 87. On the European Championship later that year, he got in the semi-finals after beating Damon Heta, Daryl Gurney and Michael van Gerwen. However, he then lost to James Wade 11–9.
2024
van Veen made his debut at the 2024 PDC World Darts Championship, losing in the first round to Man Lok Leung 2–3.
On the Pro Tour, van Veen played at the 2024 PDC Players Championship series. At Players Championship 1, he won against Jeffrey de Graaf 6–1, then defeated Benjamin Reus, Ross Smith, Kim Huybrechts and Brendan Dolan 6–5 respectively, before losing to Ryan Searle in the semi-finals.
On the Winmau Development Tour, van Veen played at the 2024 PDC Development Tour series. He reached the final at event 2, losing to Keane Barry 4–5, and won Event 5, with a 5–0 whitewash victory over Dylan Slevin in the final.