Darts: Deta Hedman racially abused after world championship defeat

Former women's world number one Deta Hedman.
Former women's world number one Deta Hedman. Photo credit: Getty

Three-time British Darts Organisation (BDO) women's world championship finalist Deta Hedman has become the latest victim of racial abuse, following her shock loss at this year's event.

Following her 2-0 defeat to Maria O'Brien in the first round at Lakeside on Monday (NZ time), the Jamaican-born English star received a shockingly abusive email that left her in tears.

"Afterwards, I had a look at my phone to see if there were any messages and there was an email saying, 'Go kill yourself you f****** ugly n*****, you're a disgrace to darts'," Hedman told the Daily Mirror.

"I showed it to my other half, Paul, and he was absolutely mad as hell. He was incensed.

"The name it came from looked Finnish and Paul said we need to check with the Finland Darts Organisation to see if they can find who it is.

"Paul sent him an email and he has actually replied - saying exactly the same thing again. Paul said he would send it to the sender's employer and he said, ‘He's racist as well'."

The 59-year-old immediately reported the message to police, but also worryingly admitted it was not the first time she had been racially abused.

"One prime example - I was in the Czech Republic and a person with an English accent  actually went, 'I didn't know they trained a monkey to play darts'."

Hedman said the abuse wouldn't stop her from playing the sport she loves.

"What got me, not in a bad way, was reading nice comments on social media. They made me cry more than what that guy said.

"He’s just one idiot,  but I was sat at work and the tears were flooding with the kind comments from people.

"I'm really looking forward to going to Q School next week - getting through that would make up for ­losing at Lakeside and the email abuse.

"I won’t give up, that’s for sure."

Racism has been a big issue in European sport over the last month, with several cases being reported.

Last week, Tottenham Ladies football defender Renee Hector tweeted that she was subjected to racist abuse by an unnamed member of the Sheffield United team.

"Such a shame that racism seems to be rising up again in football," Hector said. "I received some monkey noises today from an opposition player."

Late last month, Napoli football defender Kalidou Koulibaly was racially abused by Inter Milan fans during an Italian Serie A match, with spectators also making animal noises.

Inter Milan has been ordered to play their next two home games behind closed doors, while Napoli players said they would walk off the pitch in the middle of a game if it continued.

Manchester City's Raheem Sterling said he suffered racial abuse from Chelsea fans during a 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge, while two fans were arrested during a Scotland football match for allegedly directing racial abuse at Motherwell substitute Christian Mbulu.

Newshub.