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Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Whakatāne darts player heading to Romania

Katee Shanks
Katee Shanks
Multimedia journalist·Rotorua Daily Post·
13 Aug, 2019 08:03 AM2 mins to read
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Whakatāne darts player Sharlene Maru-Habib has been selected to represent NZ. Photo / Katee Shanks

Whakatāne darts player Sharlene Maru-Habib has been selected to represent NZ. Photo / Katee Shanks

Sharlene Maru-Habib reckons she doesn't know how to spell Romania let alone know where it is.

But come October she'll have a fair idea.

Following a hugely successful weekend at the New Zealand Darts Championship in Motueka last week, Maru-Habib gained selection to represent her country.

During the five days of national competition, Maru-Habib was runner-up in the Ladies Open, winner of the Ladies Pairs and then went on to win the Ladies Singles on the last day of the tournament.

"It's all a bit surreal really," Maru-Habib said. "I'm not sure that it has sunk in yet."

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She started playing darts in 1986, following in the footsteps of her mother and step-father who ran the local competition.

"It's without a doubt a family game. My parents play, my husband plays, my children play and I can't wait for my grandchildren to be able to play too.

"We play everything Thursday night at the War Memorial Hall between March and October."

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In the lead-up to the World Championships, Maru-Habib said there was one thing she would not be doing and that is practising.

"I've never practised in my life," she said. "Darts is a mental game and all about hand-eye coordination, that's got me to where I am today and I won't be changing."

She said her New Zealand teammates who had previously been part of the national side were giving her a lot of tips for which she was grateful. "They'll probably be sick and tired of me by the time we leave.

"There's so much I don't know. I'm not sure if the international competition is run differently than the national one, I have no idea which countries take part and I need to find out where Romania is."

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She said it was hard to believe darts was taking her around the world.

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"I only ever wanted to go to Australia because my oldest son lives there. Now I'm off to the other side of the world - I think," she laughed.

Maru-Habib said up until this year, she had always been nervous before a competition. "I used to shake but now I'm just chilled before a game. I'm not sure how that happened but it's good it has."

The New Zealand team leaves for the Worlds on October 12.

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