Gian van Veen has admitted that rushing back from health issues to compete in the Premier League may have been a mistake, as he continues to search for his best form. The world number three spoke candidly after his 6-3 victory over Daniel Larsson at the Nordic Darts Masters in Copenhagen, where he averaged 95.83 but missed 15 darts at double. “It's been okay,” he said. “The last couple of weeks or month have been a bit difficult for me, but I'm just happy with any win I can get at the moment. Today I switched back to my old darts and it felt okay. Scoring-wise, it was a bit up and down. I missed a lot of doubles, but I'm happy to get the win with the 167 checkout.”
Van Veen explained that he had switched back to his old darts after struggling with a new set provided by Red Dragon. “I haven't played with these for the last six weeks, so I probably didn't have the full confidence in them that I had a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “They gave me the darts I was using before, the black ones. I like the grip very much, but the nose of the barrel was a bit different. They're going to get that changed now, but it's going to take some days or weeks to get them all the way from the factory in Kenya back into my hands.” He added that the new darts were causing bounce-outs, prompting the switch back.
Looking ahead to his quarter-final clash with world number two Luke Humphries, van Veen acknowledged the challenge. Humphries averaged 109.92 in his 6-3 win over Jeffrey de Graaf, hitting 67% of his doubles. “Luke is in fantastic form. He showed it in the Premier League and he showed it again today against Geoffrey de Graaf. He'll probably be the favourite tomorrow, but I'm just going to enjoy it and hopefully I can cause some damage,” van Veen said. The pair have met four times in the Premier League, with Humphries winning all four, though van Veen has beaten him in the past in major tournaments including the PDC World Darts Championship quarter-finals and the European Darts Championship final.
Reflecting on his Premier League campaign, van Veen admitted that rushing back after health issues may have been unwise. “Physically I'm back to 100%,” he said. “But mentally, rushing back was maybe something I shouldn't have done in hindsight. With the schedule we have, especially with the Premier League going on, you can't take two or three weeks off because you're out of the play-offs, you're out of the European Tours and the ProTours. So I rushed back. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do, but now I feel physically 100 per cent. I feel good. Losing that many games because of rushing back probably damaged me more than I would have hoped, but it's part of the game and I'm really happy to be winning some matches again.”
Van Veen also discussed the upcoming World Cup of Darts, where he will partner Michael van Gerwen and serve as team captain due to his higher ranking. “On ranking, yes. On persona, no,” he said. “This year, of course, it's going to be very different with Michael. Danny and I know each other's games inside out and know each other really well. With Michael it's going to be different, but I still think we're going to click on that stage. We're going to do really well and hopefully on Sunday evening we'll be lifting that trophy.” He added that van Gerwen had expressed excitement about playing together, saying, “If Michael didn't fancy it, he could easily have pulled out because that's what he's done in the past couple of years. He said to me, ‘I don't know what it's like to play with you, so I want to give that a go.’”
