A group of China's top darts players began their challenge to the world's top professionals in the Global Cup Pro Darts Championship opening in Shantou, south China��s Guangdong Province on December 9.

It is the first darts tournament in Asia, with so many world-class professionals involved. "It's a historical, bridge stone tournament," said Freddie Williams, a veteran referee of England, who is invited to officiate the event here.

The eight Chinese were selected from the two-day China Open tournament, which closed here on Wednesday. The tournament, sixth n the annual series, drew a record field of 144 players from across the country, including those from Tibet Autonomous Region and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Invited to the four-day, 60,000 US dollars Global Cup event are eight elite professionals including the top seven in the Professional Darts Corporation's provisional world rankings. The annual world rankings are finalized in January.

Among them are world number one Colin Lloyd, No. 2 Phil Taylor and No. 3 Peter Manley, all from England. They are accompanied by No. 4 John Part of Canada, No.5 Roland Scholten of the Netherlands, No. 7 Kevin Painter of England, No. 8 Wayne Mardle of England and another world-class pro, John Lowe of England, now ranked 32nd in the world.

Nicknamed The Power, Phil Taylor, the most successful darts player of his generation, has established himself as the greatest darts player of all time. The Power has dominated the sport since the mid-nineties and went for nearly two years unbeaten in a live televised match between 1999-2001 and he has won the world championship title for a record 11 times.

Taylor hit the elusive perfect 9 darts finish at the 2002 Stan James World Match play Championship, during his quarter-final encounter with Chris Mason. In doing so he became the first man in eleven years to do so on TV and the first ever on live satellite broadcast.

The game of darts was introduced into China during the 1990s and the non-Olympic sport has experienced a process of unsteady growth in the world's most populous country. The national sports authorities have organized such national tournaments as the China Open.

The game's national organization Chinese Darts Association (CDA) was founded in September this year and it is now trying to become a member organization of the game's world governing body The World Darts Federation.

The Global Cup has been schemed to raise the awareness and promote the game among Chinese, CDA officials said.

Source: Xinhua