MORE countries than ever before are being represented at PDC Qualifying Schools in 2019, reflecting the continued worldwide growth of darts.
Following an incredible 2018 campaign, hopefuls from 43 nations across five continents have travelled to UK and European Q Schools as they bid to secure a PDC Tour Card for the next two years.
The previous record number of nationalities attending Q School was set in 2018 with the introduction of European Q School for the first time.
That figure was smashed at the start of January as 249 players from 32 countries competed at Halle 39 in Hildesheim, Germany, with 11 players securing Tour Cards following four days of competition.
A total of 397 players from 11 nations have entered the UK Qualifying School, which will be held from January 17-20 in Wigan.
There will be 19 PDC Tour Cards on offer at the Robin Park Tennis Centre, with the final two players on each of the four days winning an automatic PDC Tour Card.
In addition, players will earn ranking points per victory in each full round of the event (which does not include Byes), which will be used to form the UK Q School Order of Merit, from which the top 11 players will win Tour Cards.
Follow DartConnect and pdc.tv from January 17-20 for live results from UK Qualifying School, which starts at 1030 GMT each day.
All games are the best of nine legs.
Nationalities represented at UK and European Qualifying Schools
Australia - 4
Austria - 14
Belgium - 11
Brazil - 2
Bulgaria - 1
Canada - 7
Croatia - 2
Cyprus - 1
Czech Republic - 10
Denmark - 3
England - 293
Finland - 2
France - 2
Germany - 101
Gibraltar - 3
Greece - 2
Hong Kong - 2
Hungary - 5
Iceland - 1
India - 2
Ireland - 19
Italy - 8
Japan - 2
Latvia - 1
Lithuania - 2
Macedonia - 1
Netherlands - 52
New Zealand - 3
Northern Ireland - 5
Poland - 4
Portugal - 3
Romania - 1
Russia - 2
Scotland - 25
Serbia - 2
Singapore - 1
Slovakia - 2
Spain - 3
Sri Lanka - 1
Switzerland - 6
Sweden - 2
USA - 4
Wales - 28
Tour Card Winners From European Qualifying School
Niels Zonnevels (Ned)
Mike van Duivenbode (Ned)
Christian Bunse (Ger)
Darius Labanauskas (Ltu)
Madars Razma (Lat)
Marko Kantele (Fin)
Yordi Meeuwisse (Ned)
Vincent Van der Meer (Ned)
John Michael (Gre)
Jose De Sousa (Por)
Maik Kuivenhoven (Ned)