Salate Sees Off Sweeting to Tighten Grip on CDLC Rankings
Jesus Salate continued his march towards a return to the World Darts Championship on Friday, defeating Rashad Sweeting 6-1 to claim the Event Four title as the 2026 Championship Darts Latin America and Caribbean Tour resumed in Nassau.
The CDLC Tour’s closing weekend began in The Bahamas with the first of three events, and Salate arrived as the clear favourite to top the rankings and secure a second consecutive World Championship appearance. The Argentinian entered the weekend on 44 Tour Points, 16 clear of Guyana’s Norman Madhoo and 18 ahead of Trinidad and Tobago’s World Cup debutant Joshua Balfour.
Madhoo did himself no favours on Friday, falling at the first hurdle in a last-leg decider against Jamaica’s Vasseon Roye, while Balfour strengthened his own position with a run to the semifinals. Balfour, for his part, produced one of the day’s headline results in the quarterfinals, edging fourth seed Sudesh Fitzgerald 6-5, before bowing out 6-4 to Salate in the last four.
Salate had opened the final stages with a 6-1 quarterfinal win over George Patterson, before seeing off Balfour to reach another CDLC final.
Sweeting, meanwhile, righted the ship after a disappointing opening weekend in Panama, reaching his first CDLC final since Event Four of the 2025 Tour, where he defeated Madhoo 6-3. The number two seed swept aside Robin Albury 6-0 in the quarterfinals before defeating Shane Sawyer 6-4 in the semifinals to book his place in the showpiece. Sawyer had earlier ended the day of Balfour’s World Cup teammate James Walkin, edging the Trinidadian 6-5 in a heartbreaking quarterfinal decider.
Fitzgerald also showed encouraging signs following a disastrous opening weekend in Panama, producing some strong darts in his run to the quarterfinals, where he was edged out by Balfour.
The final itself was tighter than the scoreline suggested, with Sweeting finishing only a point behind Salate in the averages, but the Bahamian was punished for untimely missed doubles. Salate took the opening three legs before Sweeting got on the board with a 68 checkout, but the Argentinian immediately restored control, winning the next three legs to complete a 6-1 victory. The win gave Salate his third CDLC Tour title of the season and his sixth title in the last ten CDLC events, further underlining his status as the player to catch in the race to Alexandra Palace.
Sweeting led the field statistically on the day with an 80.72 average, while his four 180s were one better than four other players.
The CDLC Tour continues Saturday from Nassau with Event Five beginning at 11:00 AM Bahamas time.
Results
Quarterfinals
Jesus Salate (1) 6-1 George Patterson
Sudesh Fitzgerald (4) 5-6 Joshua Balfour (5)
Rashad Sweeting (2) 6-0 Robin Albury (7)
Shane Sawyer 6-5 James Walkin (6)
Semifinals
Jesus Salate 6-4 Joshua Balfour
Rashad Sweeting 6-4 Shane Sawyer
Final
Jesus Salate 6-1 Rashad Sweeting