Darts: 'Arrows' aiming at 2012 Olympics

The training has been gruelling. Andy Fordham - known to fans as "The Viking" - has forsaken his diet of 30 lagers a day and large doner kebabs for three pints of white wine spritzers and grilled fish.

Fordham, with dozens of his fellow professional darts players, is embarking on a fitness regime unprecedented in the history of the "arrows" in a campaign to score the biggest prize in the history of the game: being admitted as an Olympic sport for London 2012.

After years of only breaking sweat under the searing heat of the television lights, and perhaps sometimes before the first snifter of the day, Britain's leading players are launching their effort to have darts included when the Olympics come to London.

Supporters say it deserves recognition because it is played by an estimated seven million, making it more popular even than football.

The British Darts Organisation (BDO) insists players should be considered serious sportsmen. Darts, it says, is highly complex and requires phenomenal stamina.

The BDO is lobbying hard for a berth at the Games. Roger Holmes, the spokesman, said: "Geoff Capes is not the smallest man in the world but he won Olympic gold. Watch this space; we are firing on all cylinders.

"The British are the best in the world at darts; it began in Britain and deserves to be part of the Olympics."

Sid Waddell, the darts commentator, said: "It is a skilled and complex sport that deserves serious recognition. I know dartsmen who have played for two hours and cried from the pain caused by lactic acid build-up in the arm.

"We are the best darts nation in the world because members of the Professional Darts Corporation play each other almost every night.

"The game dates from the 13th century when British archers developed hand darts. The middle classes thought it was a game played by undesirables, but then they joined in. Today, fit young people play it."

But since swapping beer for spritzers, Fordham has dropped 42lb to 27 stone. But his form has gone. He crashed out of the World Professional Championships despite training every day.

And Fordham, 43, who was forced to quit last year's World Championships after fainting from heat exhaustion, said: "I am determined to keep the weight off until we make it to the Olympics.

"It's a new lifestyle. I can't completely cut out the booze because I get nervous before a match and need a drink to calm the nerves.

"I know we would thrash any other country at darts if we got into the Olympics.

"Darts is not just about throwing arrows and hoping for the best. It's a highly skilled game that we have to play under intense heat of lights; you need serious stamina."

Martin Adams, the England team captain, was wired to a pedometer during last year's week-long tournament, clocking up 25km while playing. The result, in a 26-page document entitled Why Darts Should Be Recognised as a Sport, helped convince Sport England to award the game sport status last June.

Adams said: "I might smoke and I might drink but what has that got to do with anything? Not all darts players are fat and lazy.

"The new young players don't drink before a match. They are extremely fit and competitive. Darts is now officially a sport, so let's get it into the Olympics."

An IOC spokesman said: "Karate, roller-blading and squash are recognised sports, but darts is not even up there with them. But never say never."

- INDEPENDENT