A Valencia resident, Sergeant Donald Boon commutes to Los Angeles everyday to serve in the LAPD. In his free time, Boon puts down the gun and picks up a dart.
A United States Marine Corps veteran, Boon has played darts since the 1980’s. After getting married and starting a family, Boon took some time away from the game for several years.
In 1998, he was awarded the LAPD purple heart for sustaining a gunshot wound while running into the line of fire to protect his partner.
After a year of rehabilitation, Boon returned to work and just recently got back into high level competitive dart throwing.
On Thursday, Boon placed in the top eight in the darts competition at the 2017 World Police and Fire Games, and won the bronze medal the following day.
“I’ve been competitive all of my life and an athlete all of my life and I enjoy that competition,” said Boon in an interview with The Signal.
Dart throwers had to concentrate with the noise of the judo competition roaring behind them. Yet the high decibel level did not phase Boon as he finished in the top three, only behind two players from Virginia and Australia.
“I thought I had the game to get to the gold medal match and [my opponent] did a fantastic job and threw either a four bull or a five bull to win it,” said Boon.
Boon attributes his elimination to those consecutive bullseyes as he lost by only two points.
Going forward, Boon will continue his competitive dart throwing in the Dart Players Los Angeles Competition and other local tournaments.
