Damon Heta snuck over the line against James Wade and survived four match darts in a dramatic last-leg shootout at the 2026 European Championship. The Australian edged a 6-5 victory, but for Heta, the overriding emotion was relief.
Speaking to DartsNews after his win, Heta admitted that his poor record in this tournament has been a source of frustration. "Crazy, I've been in the Euro finals for a ridiculous amount of years. I don't know how many Euro finals I've been in. it must have been five or six, I've won one game. It doesn't make sense in my mind. It doesn't make sense that I put in so much work and I do so much and I'm always involved and I've only got one win. Make it make sense," he said. "This is massive in retrospect."
Heta also spoke about the mental toll of his previous struggles. "Even if I tried to keep away, it feels like people will remind me, whether you have pre-interviews or not, they will remind you before then. It's just how it is. So, for myself, yeah, this is a massive relief." He added: "And it's only a first round, I've got so much more to go, but I can take this on the chin and just move on and just continue on and play some free darts."
Reflecting on his form this year, Heta was reminded of speaking to DartsNews at European Tour events where results weren't coming. Now gaining momentum, he believes it shows his hard work is paying off. "It's all about gaining those percentages, isn't it, at the end of the day? So, for myself, I don't want to say too much, but I am working on what I need to work on, and things will start heading my way, and all it has to do is a little bit of a snowball effect, and things will happen again. It's not like I've fallen off the face of the earth, to be fair. I've been pretty good, and people want to bag me for where I'm at at the moment, then that's probably a good thing. But, yeah, if they're my bad moments, like I've said in many interviews, then I'm doing alright."
Asked about the rhythm he feels most comfortable at, Heta said he wants to be fluent and not overthink. "Yeah, I'd love to just be fluent all the time, just get up there, no thinking, just throw, throw, throw, dishes are done, 180s, easy peasy. It doesn't work like that sometimes, does it? If I'm in a rhythm and things are happening, great. But if you keep going in a rhythm where things aren't happening, why would you keep in a rhythm of bad days? And that's where my train of thought is at. That's pretty much all I'm going to give you at the moment."
