GERWYN Price became the inaugural winner of the Belgian Darts Championship in Hasselt, defeating Michael Smith 8-3 in the final.

In-form Price, from Markham, averaged more than 100 in three of his five matches across two days at Expo Hasselt, as the Welsh number one claimed his third European Tour title on St David's Day.

With the final level at 2-2, world number three Price won five consecutive legs to take full control of the contest before hitting his favourite double top to land an 11th PDC ranking crown and the £25,000 top prize.

The only undefeated player in the 2020 Premier League, Price is now also the only individual with two PDC ranking titles to his name for the year.

"The crowd were fantastic all weekend, I appreciate everything from them," said Price, who had won his first title of the year seven days earlier.

"I think my checkouts kept me in the games. I hit some big shots when I needed them most to change the way some games were going.

"I think I played pretty well all the way through the tournament and hopefully I can keep this form going into the Premier League and UK Open."

Having whitewashed Jamie Hughes with a 105.93 average in the last 16, Price then defeated Mensur Suljovic 6-2 before recovering from 3-0 down to overcome Dirk van Duijvenbode 7-4.

Improving Dutchman van Duijvenbode engaged the Belgian crowd as a string of sparking displays saw him reach his first European Tour semi-final.

Meanwhile, Michael van Gerwen's wait for a first PDC title of 2020 goes on after he lost a deciding leg to Smith in the last 16.

The European Tour will return with the European Darts Grand Prix in Sindelfingen, Germany across the weekend of March 20-22.