LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND (AP) - The Court of Arbitration for Sport has reduced the doping ban for a kart driver who was 12 when he tested positive for a banned stimulant after an international race in Germany.
A CAS ruling says a two-year ban imposed on Polish racer Igor Walilko by motor sport’s governing body, the FIA, was “excessive and disproportionate.”
Walilko, now 14, will serve an 18-month ban that expires next January, allowing him to compete in the full 2012 season.
Walilko’s original ban for consuming nikethamide, likely in an energy food, was supported by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The CAS panel dismissed as “utterly irrelevant” the argument by Walilko’s lawyers that he was too young to be sanctioned for doping.
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