Lovely Mae Orbeta displayed mental toughness to outclass her experienced rivals and gifted the Philippines its first-ever gold in the 2025 WDF World Cup at the Kintex 10A Hall in Goyang-si, South Korea Saturday, Sept. 27.

Orbeta, 20, showed great composure under heavy pressure and toppled veteran Paula Murphy via a 7-2 final win to capture the crown in the women’s singles event which featured some of the globe’s elite darters.

Her remarkable title victory became more impressive as Orbeta, a third year Marketing Management student at University of Caloocan City, previously beat Irina Armstrong, 6-2, in the semifinal which happened more than an hour earlier.

Orbeta cleared her path to the finale with big wins against Japan’s Mikuru Suzuki (4-2), Slovakia’s Lucia Jankovská (4-0), and Scotland’s Sophie McKinlay (5-3).

Meanwhile, Filipino darters Alexis Toylo and Noel Malicdem settled for bronze in the men’s pairs category after falling short to Netherland’s Jimmy van Schie and Danny van Trijp, 5-1, in the semis.

Prior to their semis setback, Toylo and Malicdem collected the scalps of Sweden’s Johan Engström and Andreas Harrysson, 4-2, in the Last 16 then scored a quarterfinal 4-2 victory over England’s Chas Barstow and Jarred Cole.

Toylo took part as well in men’s singles where he stumbled in the first round via a 4-2 loss to Canadian Jeff Smith in the week-long joust that joined by more than 40 countries and territories across the globe.

Their compatriots Lourence Ilagan and Paolo Nebrida suffered an early exit after yielding to Japanese Ryusei Azemoto and Yuichiro Ogawa, 4-3, in the first round.

In the the women's team event, Janice Hinojales, Aileen Oclarit, Lovely Mae Orbeta, and Gisele Bulahao tried to reach the championship round but they ran out of gas and got beaten by Ireland, 9-3, in the semis to also get the bronze.

Before entering semis, the Philippines got the best out of Canada, 9-3, in the opener and blanked Switzerland, 9-0, in the quarters.