Darts player Deta Hedman has pulled out of her Denmark Open quarter-final against transgender competitor Noa-Lynn van Leuven. Hedman has been a vocal critic of rules allowing transgender women to compete in women’s tournaments and chose to forfeit Saturday’s match.
Three-time WDF World Championship runner-up Hedman has been on the women’s darts scene since the 1980s, counting the World Masters and the Dutch Open among her numerous career accolades.
Hedman’s latest trip took her to the Denmark Open in Esbjerg, where she was due to meet Van Leuven in the last eight. But the Dutchwoman, who started her transition in 2022, was sent straight through to the semis when her opponent pulled out.
Just two days before the match was due to take place, Hedman posted a message on her Facebook page which read: “Women & girls deserve to be CHAMPIONS in their own sports.”
And the 64-year-old put a lengthy rant on social media last year outlining her feelings on transgender players competing in women’s darts tournaments, which she believes to be ‘wrong since day one’.
Hedman wrote: “For many months I’ve struggled with transgenders playing in the Women’s world ranked events. I have thought this is wrong since day one, I have no problem with transgenders in life.
“I’m not close to Noa-Lynn in darts but in fairness seems a lovely person, at Lakeside I met Victoria Monaghan and must admit she is a right character we had banter and a fair few laughs, but my personal view is trans shouldn’t be playing in women’s ranked events.
“Noa is a really nice person, nobody is disputing that at all, it’s just my belief and many other women players’ belief that trans shouldn’t be in women’s ranked events.
“At the recent Killarney Festival I had the upset of a very good lady player who has played at the top end of WDF events and the PDC ladies series come to me in tears saying this issue is really getting to her and is considering walking away from darts.”
Van Leuven, now a regular on the women’s tour, became the first woman to win a Challenger Tour event back in March, clinching a £2,500 cash prize with a victory over former Premier League Darts competitor John Henderson in the quarter-finals.
