I was a 400m runner who replaced Laura Woods as new face of darts after chance meeting with WWE icon

Emma Paton is the perfect fit for the larger-than-life characters seen at the darts – having being helped to breakthrough by a WWE icon.

The presenter will be front and centre on UK television for the PDC World Darts Championship’s return to Ally Pally but she hit the big screens long ago.

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Before Paton became a household name for leading fans through the darts, she was taking Hollywood stars through athletics training.

The 30-year-old is a former 400m runner at a national level, having studied at Loughborough University as an undergraduate.

Patton told Wayne Mardle on the William Hill Club 501 on YouTube: “I was reasonably fit.

“I’d run a cross country and wouldn’t give up. That led me to athletics. People were like ‘You’re quick, you’re fit, you should go down to a track’. So I ended up doing that and representing my county and country.

“400 metres was what I got to. I wish I had come to the sport earlier, maybe 200 would have been my event. Actually 800… that was what I represented.

“It was horrific, it was horrible. I’d run like the first lap quick and then I’d die! So I settled on 400 which was brutal. The training was awful but I loved it, that’s what I enjoy the most. I enjoyed that more than the competing.”

Paton clocked 55.87 at the 2011 CAU Inter Counties Championships in the U23 division – which is only 2.37 seconds slower than the worst time registered at the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer.

Within a year, she was giving Downton Abbey actress Lily James a crash-course insight into how brutal the training could be.

The Manchester United fan had a cameo role alongside the Golden Globe-nominated star in ‘Fast Girls’ – which is about British sprinters.

The 2012 film, which grossed over $1 million dollars at the worldwide box office, saw her feature as a Ukrainian relay runner.

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Ironically a runner is what she became at Sky Sports after working as part of Team GB’s media team during the London Olympics.

Paton told Sports Gazette: “I’m someone who just loves sport. Having an athletic background — national level 400m metre runner — that’s where it all came from. That’s a reason I got into journalism. If I’m not the athlete, why not be able to speak to the athletes.”

Paton completed a Master’s degree in sports journalism at St Mary’s University, with her first Sky roles coming as an online journalist before moving into production.

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However, it was a chance encounter with WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H that allowed her to get in front of the camera.

Paton made an impression on the nine-time champion at a wrestling event at London’s Royal Albert Hall in June 2018.

Weeks later Stephanie McMahon, daughter of former WWE chairman Vince, announced the inaugural all-women’s Evolution PPV and her husband Triple H was keen for Paton to be involved.

She added: “Obviously I was trying hard to present six or seven years ago.

“This was before I made any breakthrough with darts. I was working in production, behind the camera.

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“I was trying to find opportunities to gain experience as a presenter.

“In the end, one of my colleagues worked on WWE and said ‘We do podcasts if you ever want to come and shadow or watch, let me know’.

“At event came up at the Royal Albert Hall for a press day and then the event in the evening.

“My colleague told me to ask a question. I put my hand up and they brought a mic over and I asked about the growth of women’s wrestling and Triple H gave this really long answer.

“The press conference wrapped up and he’s walking out with his entourage and comes over to me and introduces himself. He says ‘I might have an exclusive for you’.

“A month later and my colleague gets an email from his PA and said ‘We want to give you this exclusive as mentioned. There will be this all-women’s pay-per-view which has never been done before. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon would like to invite Emma over to New York to cover the event for Sky Sports.

“A job came up at Sky Sports News for a presenter/reporter job which I applied for and I was lucky enough to get through the stages.

“I’d been at Sky for seven or eight years. The Triple H thing maybe gave me confidence as well. Really random.”

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Paton became an on-screen presenter in 2019 and has worked on Sky’s coverage of WWE, US Open tennis, and transfer deadline day.

She is now best known for work on the darts having taken the reins from talkSPORT alumni Laura Woods at the world championships.

Former talkSPORT Breakfast host ‘Woodsy’ left the role in 2022, with Paton quickly becoming a firm fan favourite at Ally Pally.

She has struck up a fantastic rapport with darts pundit Mardle – even if she admits that she sometimes struggles to hear him!

Paton told SunSport: “I remember the first Worlds when fans were back after the pandemic.

“I was driving up the hill to Ally Pally and I saw someone dressed as a traffic cone and then actually threw up in their own shoe. I was like ‘What the hell am I doing here!’

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“It is really loud. There are some occasions when it’s just a wall of noise.

“There are times when I actually can’t hear what Wayne Mardle, Mark Webster or John Part are saying. I can’t even hear the director in my ear. I just have to hope we are on the same page for running order and not too much has changed.

“Working with Wayne has helped me, he is someone who has always backs me. He’s one of those people who wants people around him to succeed. 

“He’s like the Gary Neville of Sky Sports Darts. He’s so engaging and his analysis is second to none and his stories are ridiculous!”

In that case, that would make Paton the oche Roy Keane – who, as Ruben Amorim pointed out, is the real star anyway…