Damon Heta snuck over the line against James Wade and survived four match darts in a dramatic last-leg shootout at the 2026 European Championship. But for Heta, it was very much just relief all around.

Heta spoke to DartsNews after his win and said that in reality, it was a relief as he has such a poor record in this tournament and doesn't understand it. He won 6-5 against Wade and said that given the amount of hard work and effort he puts in, it is just not rewarded when it comes to the big stage.

"Crazy, I've been in the Euro finals for a ridiculous amount of years. I don't know how many Euro finals I've been in. it must have been five or six, I've won one game. It doesn't make sense in my mind. It doesn't make sense that I put in so much work and I do so much and I'm always involved and I've only got one win. Make it make sense," said Heta to DartsNews. "This is massive in retrospect."

"Even if I tried to keep away, it feels like people will remind me, whether you have pre-interviews or not, they will remind you before then. It's just how it is. So, for myself, yeah, this is a massive relief."

"And it's only a first round, I've got so much more to go, but I can take this on the chin and just move on and just continue on and play some free darts."

Reverting back to where Heta has been at times this year, he was reminded of speaking to DartsNews at European Tour events and how the results wouldn't really come and the performances weren't there. Now gaining momentum, Heta said that it shows it is working and that it will click for him.

Heta working on himself to unlock next phase

He said that he has been working on himself away from the oche and that it will be a ripple effect with his form hitting the top eventually.

"It's all about gaining those percentages, isn't it, at the end of the day? So, for myself, I don't want to say too much, but I am working on what I need to work on, and things will start heading my way, and all it has to do is a little bit of a snowball effect, and things will happen again. It's not like I've fallen off the face of the earth, to be fair. I've been pretty good, and people want to bag me for where I'm at at the moment, then that's probably a good thing. But, yeah, if they're my bad moments, like I've said in many interviews, then I'm doing alright."

Asked about which rhythm that he feels most comfortable at and where he aims to be, Heta said that while he isn't going to be giving too much away, he wants to be fluent and be not thinking. He wants to be at his fluent best where his scoring power can match the best in the world.

Previously Heta gained prominence for his scoring and his effortless throw and he wants to revert to that and that he wants to banish the bad thoughts from his mind as a result.

"Yeah, I'd love to just be fluent all the time, just get up there, no thinking, just throw, throw, throw, dishes are done, 180s, easy peasy.

"It doesn't work like that sometimes, does it? If I'm in a rhythm and things are happening, great. But if you keep going in a rhythm where things aren't happening, why would you keep in a rhythm of bad days? And that's where my train of thought is at. That's pretty much all I'm going to give you at the moment."