13-year-old karter appeals doping ban

The Polish racer is scheduled to give evidence at the Lausanne-based court on Thursday as his lawyers challenge a two-year suspension imposed by motor sport's governing body, the FIA.Branded a doping cheat at age 13, karting driver Igor Walilko is appealing his ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Walilko was just 12 when he tested positive for the banned stimulant nikethamide after an international karting race in Germany last July. It was his first doping control.

Walilko's lawyer Michael Lehner told the Associated Press the case had been "very difficult" for the teenager, who was a national junior champion.

"He was very famous in Poland and, one day after, he was a criminal child," Lehner said in a telephone interview. "He has good chances to go to a career in motor sport, and now with a two-year ban it's finished."

The FIA did not respond to requests for comment on the case.

According to Walilko's website, he began riding motocross bikes at 4 and followed his father, Rafal, into the sport.

In 2007, Walilko started competitive racing in karts - the same route taken by Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton on their road to become Formula One world champions.

"He has a lot of talent," Lehner said. "The father pushed him, this is normal in sport, but the father doesn't push him in doping."

Walilko won the Polish junior title in 2009, which led to him competing in Germany last season piloting 125cc engines in KF3 class races.

At the Ampfing circuit on July 18, he finished second in a 24-lap race, reaching speeds of 88 kilometers per hour (55 mph).

German organizers then took a urine sample which had traces of nikethamide, a stimulant inadvertently taken in 2004 by women's 100-meter world champion Torri Edwards which caused her to miss the Athens Olympics.

The World Anti-Doping Agency classifies nikethamide as a specified substance which allows for explanations of accidental use - if an athlete proves how it was consumed.

"A 12-year-old boy is not able to remember what he eats the whole day," Lehner said. "Maybe he gets it from some friends, we don't know."

The World Anti-Doping Code states that cases "involving a minor shall be considered a particularly serious violation," but also points out that "certainly youth and lack of experience are relevant factors to be assessed."

Lehner said the FIA anti-doping panel which judged Walilko's case in Paris last October "haven't discussed the problem" before imposing the two-year ban.

"Yes, he knows doping is forbidden ... (but) for a 12-year-old child it's not easy to understand complicated rules," said the German lawyer, a specialist in sports doping cases.

"WADA reviewed the sanction ... and has decided not to exercise its independent right of appeal to the CAS, as it is in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code," it said in a statement to the AP.However, WADA said it studied the case and accepted the FIA's verdict.

The CAS panel is expected to give its ruling within the next few weeks.

Lehner said he would argue that Walilko was below the age of criminal liability in Poland, while the Youth Olympic Games is closed to athletes younger than 14.

"For more than 14 years old, OK, you can use the rules but not the maximum (two years)," he said. "For a child, you should not have the possibility to punish him."