BBC SPORT | Other Sports | Specials | World Darts Championship 2002

All eyes will be on the women at this year's Embassy World Championship - and in particular on the talented Trina Gulliver.

Gulliver - more than a match for most of the best male dart players in the game - lifted the inaugural Embassy Women's World Championship title last year and she knows it is going to be tough trying to retain it.

The main reason is that last year's contest went down so well with the sponsors and the BBC that the competition has been increased to eight finalists and the prize money jacked up to �10,000.

They include the four top women in the British Darts Organisation rankings - Gulliver, her regular adversary Francis Hoenselaar of Holland, England's Crissy Howat and Belgium's Vicky Pruim.

Trina Gulliver is overcome with emotion after winning the Embassy Women's World Championship
Gulliver was overcome after last year's victory

And making up the set are another four women who qualified through a world-class international knock-out competition.

Welsh pair Sandra Greatbatch and Jan Robbins, England's Mandy Solomons and American Stacy Bromberg eventually came out on top of a talented field and will join the line-up to battle for the �4,000 winner's cheque.

Former carpenter and joiner Gulliver said: "The Embassy was the best win of my career.

"Women have always wanted their own world championship and for it to finally come along and for me to win it was just brilliant.

"It will be tougher this time around with eight players after the title.

"The expectation for me to win it again is there but I must try not to put too much pressure on myself."

Proud BDO spokesman Olly Croft said: "The commitment of the BDO to women's darts has never been in doubt.

Embassy women's world champion Trina Gulliver
Gulliver could beat many of the best male players

"Women have been involved in the vast majority of our events since the BDO was founded in 1973.

"And it was a ground-breaking initiative to invite women into the Embassy International Play-Offs in 1995, followed by the first ever stand-alone Women's World Darts Championship in 2001.

"All of the players who took part were a credit to our sport - none more so than Trina Gulliver, who has let everyone know just how proud she is to have made history as the very first Embassy Women's World Champion.

"She is a wonderful ambassador who is a credit not only to women's darts, but also to the sport worldwide."