- Australia’s Gordon Mathers played his opening round match on Wednesday
- He has lost 50kg in recent months and his new-look appearance impressed fans
Australian darts star Gordon Mathers looked a completely new man as he returned to the Alexandra Palace stage on Wednesday night.
Making his first appearance at the World Championship in three years, Mathers, 43, took on Ricky Evans in the opening round and pushed the Englishman all the way before succumbing to a 3-2 defeat.
But it was still a night of triumph for Mathers in other ways, as he showed off his incredible body transformation that has seen him lose 50kg.
The Brisbane-born player previously ballooned up to 160kg (25 stone) after admitting to eating at the wrong times, but he has now dipped down to 110kg (17 stone), and looked in great health on the main stage.
His weight loss efforts did not go unnoticed by fans, as one posted on X: ‘One of the most impressive body transformations I’ve ever seen from anyone by Gordon Mathers. Incredible.’
Mathers recently opened up on how he has lot so much weight, as he revealed that he was inspired to get healthy after losing his dad at the age of 57 to heart failure.
Gordon Mathers has lost 50kg as part of an incredible body transformation
He was returning to the World Championship for the first time in three years, but slipped to a 3-2 defeat
Mathers was beaten by England’s Ricky Evans (pictured) and is still waiting for his first ever World Championship win
‘I’ve always been big but when I got a tour card I stopped working and the lifestyle of a darts player isn’t the best,’ Mathers explained on the TungstenTales YouTube channel.
‘You are eating at the wrong time of the night because you have to. There is nothing else open so it is all junk food. So I blew out really badly until I came back to Australia.
‘My kids were the catalyst to lose the weight because my father passed away at the age of 57 with heart failure. So they were always into me “you’re going like big pop” and then my brother actually played in the inaugural World Series with me back in 2013.
‘He had the weight loss surgery, and I saw him go through it, so in March, I touched the weight of 160kg, and I just made the decision that the time was right.
‘I’m down at the moment to 110kg, so 50 kg that I have lost in six or seven months and I would do it again tomorrow.’
Mathers is still waiting for his first World Championship win, but he came closer than ever on Wednesday night.
On an evening of high drama, there was also the first nine-darter of this year’s tournament in the match before Mathers took on Evans.
Dutch star Christian Kist produced the perfect leg in the first set of his match with Latvia’s Madars Razma, triggering a £180,000 Paddy Power bonus.
Earlier in the night, Christian Kist (pictured) hit the first nine-darter of this year’s tournament
He received £60,000, while £60,000 also went towards Prostate Cancer research, and a fan in the crowd was picked at random and given £60,000.
Despite his moment of magic, Kist went on to lose 3-1 and, like Mathers, his tournament is over.
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