Japanese Darts star Morihiro Hashimoto has died suddenly at the age of 40. A star in the soft tip game, which has unpresented popularity across Asia, first came to the attention of the Darting spheres when he made the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship at London’s Alexandra Palace. After winning through his preliminary round match he would face Gary Anderson in the first round proper. He would soon become a fans favourite within the Alexandra Palace with fans chanting ‘du, du, du du… Hashimoto’ throughout.
And it would be typical for him to walk onto the song in which they were chanting to ‘Reach up’ by Perfecto Allstarz. He would go on to lose the game but win the hearts of the Darting globe.
After representing his country Japan at the PDC World Cup of Darts and playing in the World Series in Tokyo it was the soft tip game where Mohihiro made his name. He was an near on ever present at the latter stages of the Softtip live events across Asia and Las Vegas and one of the best players in soft tip history not to win a big softip live title.
It was confirmed by his promoter on Facebook that he passed following “sudden internal bleeding to the brain.” His family have also asked for their privacy at this heart-breaking moment .
BELOW ARE TRIBUTES FROM THE DARTS SCENE ON TWITTER:
Paul Nicholson: Former Players Championship winner and Channel 4/ BT Sport pundit
Dave Clark: Sky Sports Darts presenter
Henry Deacon
Henry Deacon Media 