MORIHIRO HASHIMOTO has won a return to the Ladbrokes World Darts Championship, after edging out Haruki Muramatsu 6-5 to win the PDJ Japanese Qualifier.
The 36-year-old previously competed at the 2011 World Championship, when he became a crowd favourite at Alexandra Palace with his preliminary round win over Matt Padgett before losing out to Gary Anderson in the first round.
He will now join the other International Qualifiers in this year's tournament, which begins in December, after coming through the final stages of the PDJ's Japanese qualifier, where the leading players from qualifying events held earlier this year came together for the national finals.
He defeated Tokuyou Takayama 4-2 before edging out Kenichi Aijiki 4-3 with a 14-dart leg in their quarter-final's deciding leg, and then overcame Keita Ono 5-3 in the semi-finals.
In the final against Muramatsu, Hashimoto led 3-1 only to see the three-time World Championship qualifier hit back with four successive legs to lead 5-4.
Hashimoto, though, drew level to send the match into a deciding leg, in which he hit three tons before finishing 96 in two darts to seal his return to the World Championship stage.
2014 Ladbrokes World Darts Championship
PDJ Japanese Qualifier
Quarter-Finals
Haruki Muramatsu 4-2 Masumi Chino
Sho Katsumi 4-2 Hiroaki Shimizu
Keita Ono 4-1 Atsushi Takeuchi
Morihiro Hashimoto 4-3 Kenichi Aijiki
Semi-Finals
Haruki Muramatsu 5-3 Sho Katsumi
Morihiro Hashimoto 5-3 Keita Ono
Final
Morihiro Hashimoto 6-5 Haruki Muramatsu
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