This weekend the PDC Nordic & Baltic held the third tournament weekend in the season of 2023 on the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour in darts and the weekend were held in Iceland.
Marko Kantele, who lives in Vääksy, won his third tournament of the season, as he won the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour 6.
Along his way to the final, he beat countryman Paavo Myller in the quarterfinals. Paavo Myller recently made his debut on the European Tour.
In the semifinal, he was up against Danish Benjamin Drue Reus, who was one of the best players this weekend according to his average. However, Marko Kantele was too strong for the Dane and won the match by 6-5, despite being down by 4-1 in the match.
In the final, he faced Jeffrey de Graaf who secured himself Swedish citizenship before this season. The Swede, who is originally from the Netherlands, is a former Tour Card Holder at the PDC. So it was a fairly good player Marko Kantele had to beat to get the title.However, Marko Kantele had already beaten Jeffrey de Graaf in the final of the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour 1 – and just like in that final, Marko Kantele once again won by 6-1.
The weekend in Iceland consisted of two Pro Tours and three qualifiers for the European Tour. Earlier this season Marko Kantele has also won two of the European qualifiers, and this weekend he won one more, meaning he will be going to the European Darts Grand Prix in Sindelfingen, which is the 9th European Tour this season.
At the Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour 5, Marko Kantele managed to reach the top 16, meaning this weekend secured him yet another 1325 euros for the rankings. In total Marko Kantele has 4050 points on the rankings, which puts him number one on the rankings. Number two, Swedish Daniel Larsson, has 2375 points.
When the season is over, and all ten Nordic and Baltic Pro Tours has been played, top two on the rankings, will qualify for the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace in London in December.
The next Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour weekend will be in Finland in June.
Nordic and Baltic Pro Tour 6
Quarter-finals
[DEN] Benjamin Drue Reus 6-1 Vladimir Andersen [DEN]
[SWE] Jeffrey de Graaf 6-5 Oskar Lukasiak [FIN]
[FIN] Marko Kantele 6-3 Paavo Myller [FIN]
[FIN] Jani Keskinarkaus 6-5 Dmitrijs Zukovs [LAT]
Semi-finals
Jeffrey de Graaf 6-0 Jani Keskinarkaus
Marko Kantele 6-5 Benjamin Drue Reus
Final
Marko Kantele 6-1 Jeffrey de Graaf
Source: Helsinki Times