The world championships qualifier who quit darts

Gemma Hayter from Portsmouth is going to the PDC World Darts Championships

Just 18 months after taking an eight-year break from the game, a women's darts player has qualified for the sport's biggest stage.

Gemma Hayter from Portsmouth said it has been a "rollercoaster" after she qualified for the PDC World Darts Championships.

She stepped away from the oche after feeling the women's game lacked opportunity but says the success of her friend and world number one, Luke Humphries from Berkshire, "inspired" her to pick the darts up again.

The event will run from the 15 December – 3 January at London's Alexandra Palace.

Hayter still thinks the women's game "deserves a bit more recognition"

Reflecting on her decision to quit the sport in 2016, Hayter said she felt like she was "wasting a lot of money and not getting a lot back".

She played with Humphries at youth level, and when the Reading-born world number one won the world championships in 2024, Hayter decided to make a return.

Since then she has won two PDC Women's Series titles, which led to a debut at the Women's World Matchplay.

She has now gone one better by booking her place at Ally Pally after finishing 5th on the 2025 Women's Series order of Merit.

"I've got to have fun, I don't know when I'm going to be there again," said Hayter.

"I've just got to try and soak it up and hopefully I play well."

Five women will compete at the championships after a new qualifying structure was announced.

There will be an expanded field of 128 players this year, which is up from 96 last year and the winner will take home £1m of a £5m prize pot.

Three-time WDF World Champion Beau Greaves, Women's Matchplay winner Lisa Ashton and Fallon Sherrock - the only woman to have won matches in the world championship in 2019, have also qualified.

Hayter, a qualified lab technician, said she felt like darts was "turning upside down and becoming a young person's game".

However she admitted that she believed the women's game still "deserves a bit more recognition".