The 13-year-old has hit her target to win the girls title at the New Zealand junior and youth darts championships in Hastings recently.
The Otago Girls’ High School pupil was "pretty proud" to win the title in her first championship, beating Maia Black, of Bay of Plenty, 3-2 in the final.
She was thrilled to finish on a 52, having slipped earlier to hit a four, but rebounded beautifully, hitting an eight and a double 20 to win the game.
"I was quite shocked. It still hasn’t really hit that I won," Sophie said.
Her success did not stop there. She was runner-up with King’s High School pupil Jacob Hoessler in the national mixed juniors tournament and was named captain of the New Zealand A junior girls tournament team.
The tournament team beat the national B team 9-6, following three games of pairs and one singles, and it was special to captain the team.
"It was quite cool. Quite proud since it was my first time. I didn’t really know what to expect but, yeah, it was cool."
Sophie grew up watching her father, Michael, play darts with the Otago Darts Association.
She threw her first dart when she was 8 and started playing throughout Otago and Southland when she was 11.
She said she watched plenty of darts on television and seeing the way fans immerse themselves among the players struck a chord with her.
"It looks really competitive, and I’m quite a competitive person, and just seeing when the crowd cheers for someone ... that just seemed pretty cool and I thought I want that to happen to me one day."
Sophie loved learning and playing alongside the best, winning the festival of darts in Dunedin last year alongside Desi Mercer, of Gore, one of New Zealand’s top female darts players.
She also came close to winning a Labour Weekend tournament in Dunedin last year with top men’s player AJ Te Kira, of Hutt Valley. The duo made the final and were leading 3-2 when Te Kira had to leave to make his flight back home — "he only got there within 30 seconds" — on time.
The pair will line up for the tournament together again this year, but Te Kira was prepared with later flights this time in case they made the final.
That practice will all come in handy for Beaumont, who wants to win the national youth singles title in a few years.
