VAN VEEN IN LUGGAGE NIGHTMARE

GIAN VAN VEEN is facing a crisis ahead of the New Zealand Masters after his luggage didn’t arrive with his darts.

The World No.2 will make his debut in Auckland on Friday night but is in a race against time to make sure he has the right equipment.

Van Veen, 24, has been constantly in touch with Qatar Airways after his bags didn’t make it following the 30-hour trip via Doha and Adelaide before finally touching down in New Zealand.

He told AD.nl: “There’s a ten-hour time difference, so you want to get used to it a little. You don’t want to be on stage on Friday with a sleepy head. You don’t come here that often, so it’s nice to see something of the country as well.

“I’ve been busy in the live chat with Qatar Airways for several hours to make sure the suitcases get here as soon as possible.

“My darts, my shirt, my trousers: everything is in there.

“We’ve now been told they should be here on Thursday evening. But two days ago they said we should already have the suitcases by now, and that didn’t happen either. We’ll have to wait and see.”

A constant issue for the players is that they aren’t allowed to take darts in their carry-on pages and therefore depend on checked baggage when flying.

He added: “It’s happened to me once before, but that was on the way back to the Netherlands, so it wasn’t such a big deal.

“We went to a dart shop here for darts, but I have a special point on my darts that isn’t sold here. So I do have darts I can throw with now, but they’re not the same.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.