Harith Lim, Singapore's Dartslive Official Player, reached the top 4 in The World Stage 1 tournament held at i Darts Club, Hong Kong recently on 28 April, 2013. This was his best performance so far at The World and it was also one where he beat some of the biggest names in the soft darts tournament circuit.
Steve Ngu presenting Harith Lim (right) with his Joint 3rd place HKD$12,000 prize winnings
In the zone...
Harith started his climb for Stage 1 playing against 3 Japanese opponents. In the first round, he won 3-0 against Yu Nakata. In the second round, he played 3-0 against with Kei Usami, who was the 2012 Soft Darts Japan 16 Stage 1 Champion. Harith shared, "Maybe Kei was nervous or wasn't comfortable on stage, I felt he didn't actually play his normal game." After that game, Harith went on to beat T. Kawamura, one of Japan 16 top player, 3-2 to proceed into the Top 16.In his Top 16 game, Harith was matched against Watanyu, one of Thailand's top player. Harith lamented, "During the game with Watanyu, I missed a perfect 701 game by just one dart and I also lost the leg. So it was like HKD$3000 gone and the leg gone too!" Harith was refering to "The World 14" , where a prize money of HKD$3000 was given out to any player who achieve a 14-darts out on a game of 701.
Despite the initial setback in the 01 game, Harith went on to beat Watanyu 3-2 in a challenging game. Harith explained, "He played very well. We were neck to neck and finally in a tight moment on the last Cricket game, I overtook him, winning 3-2".
Harith felt confident and had the feeling he was going far. He explained, "I was in the zone. I was doing good and feeling good all day, and the darts felt so smooth. Its like when the dart left the hand, you know its going to hit."
Playing against Paul Lim
In his next game, the Top 8 game, he was matched against Paul Lim, the first champion of The World 2011. Although Harith and Paul had played together many times before, the match was keenly watched as only one of them could proceed on.
"Paul's game was really challenging and thrilling," explained Harith. "It was in the last decider leg of cricket. I was leading and hanging on to the small lead. Paul needed to turn the table around and was going for a miracle shot of 2 black bulls and a double 20. He could have shot all bulls to maintain the point lead and made me work another round. If he were to do the usual way to stay on the bull, I would need a 6 marks on the 20 and a bull. Because his first dart was a black bull, he could try for another black or 3 in the black. If he hit the sides, I would need 4 marks on the 20 and a bull but I still have to work."
Harith explains, "After the game, I asked Paul why he chose to hit those numbers. Paul says, "I have seen the way you were playing the whole day, I'm not going to give you that opportunity. You were definitely going to hit that! So I had to try that shot".
Harith said, "You got to see how your opponent is playing. If your opponent is struggling, make him struggle. If your opponent is not struggling and you know he's going to hit triple easily, then you try to end the game as fast as possible. So that was what he had in mind actually. On that game, I was throwing like 7 marks then 9 marks then 7,7,7,7 on the cricket. If he were to bang on the bull and let me have a shot on triple 20, triple 20 and a bull, the chances of me hitting that was pretty high. So that's the reason why he had to try that the magic shot to kill me off so I didn't have the chance. If his bull was blocking I think he would have gone for another round."
"That's why Paul hesitated so much before the throw. He went up to line and went back. He was thinking about the throw. We talked after the match, I told him if I were in the same position as you, I would have done the same thing because if you were playing so well, I wouldn't have given you another opportunity," explained Harith.
Harith walking down the finalists' red carpet
My day finally ended
In his Semi-finals game, Harith lost against last year's The World 2012 Champion, Takehiro Suzuki, with a score of 3-1. Harith shared, "Stats wise, I didn't play too badly against him. However he managed to hit the right shots at the right time and I didn't control the game. I may be disappointed this time round but I hope to play him again soon one day.""We all want to win. Everyone has the capability to win that day. It just depends on how you play that day, how you maintain your form. My day had to end there while Ronald Briones (Champion of Stage 1) was the one who went all the way."
Go play The World!
Harith will be attending the next few The World Stages. He plans to travel to France (Stage 3), South Korea (Stage 4), Stage 5 and Las Vegas (Stage 6). He shared, "For Stage 8, I will go again to Hong Kong. I want to go for Stage 8 because there are some of my friends and team mates who are also planning to go for Stage 8. Just like in Stage 1, there were 5 other Singaporeans playing (Jin Kuang, Max Ong, John Chee, Johnny Tan and Nelson Wong). They were all nervous but they had a good experience playing. All of them got knockout in the first round but they played well to their capability, especially Jin Kuang and Max Ong. I want to commend them on that. I encouraged them to go there, play it, feel it and see it with your own eyes. Don't tell me what you are doing here is good enough.""For them to make the trip there and play, I really respect them!", exclaimed Harith. "They had the courage to go there and play. They want to go there and see where they stand and what is the standard of The World. They said it was really tough and really scary! But they want to do it again in Stage 8! So that's a good thing and I support them!"
There were players from many countries all over the world playing in The World. So, we had to ask Harith the all important question: Who do you think will win this year's The World title? Harith laughed, "Definitely an Asian will win the Grand Final, I'm sure of it!"
Harith's pictures featured above are Copyright © 2013 WSDA
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