BANNED darts star Dom Taylor opened up on the “hurt” of his previous drugs shame, on the same day he failed a test for this years World Darts Championship.
Taylor, 27, has been booted out of this year’s Alexandra Palace tournament after returning an adverse analytical finding to an in-competition test taken last Sunday.
The Darts Regulation Authority announced today that Taylor had been informed of the result from the December 14 test and had been suspended from participating from the rest of the competition.
The world No65 comfortably beat Swede Oskar Lukasiak 3-0 in his opening World Championship clash last Sunday, but has seen his £25,000 prize money withheld.
He missed the 2024-25 Worlds after being suspended as a result of a positive drugs test for a banned substance just a month before the tournament.
He said last weekend that the absence 12 months ago “hurt massively”, adding: “Biggest letdown of my life.
“But I’ve rebounded back and here we are.
“I wasn’t speaking to anyone, keeping myself to myself and just practising.
“If I didn’t believe I was going to walk home with a million pounds, I wouldn’t be here.”
At a hearing in December 2024, Taylor admitted breaches of the UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) Rules and the DRA said that “although he had tested positive in competition the Committee were satisfied that the ingestion of the prohibited substance took place out of competition”.
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A potential two-year ban was on the table but the Committee were satisfied that the substance taken by Taylor, nicknamed The Tower, was not performance-enhancing and ingested out of competition and therefore slapped him with a three-month suspension.
That was then reduced to one month on the proviso he completed a substance of abuse treatment programme approved by UKAD.
Yet the timings of the case last Christmas meant he was unable to play at Ally Pally and he was replaced in the field by Robert Owen.
But one year on and Taylor is paying for the price for another failed drugs test.
The Bristolian had been set to face Jonny Clayton in round two on Saturday night but the Welshman has been given a bye into the third round after Christmas.
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