A CAS hearing will consider the Belarus canoe team in Lausanne tomorrow ©Getty Images

A one-year suspension awarded to the Belarus men's sprint team by the International Canoe Federation (ICF) is due to be discussed at a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing here tomorrow. 

It comes after only female paddlers from the Eastern European nation were permitted to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games following a flurry of doping failures.

French newspaper Le Monde reported in May that five members of the Belarus team had failed for meldonium during a training camp, including brothers Andrei and Aliaksandr Bahdanovich, the C2 1000m Olympic champions at Beijing who won silver four years later in London.

They were each reportedly caught in France following a surprise visit during a training camp by testers led by former cyclist Christophe Bassons.

The revelations provoked fury in Belarus, particularly due to the controversy surrounding meldonium since the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) admitted more information was required to ascertain how long it remained in the human body following it being outlawed on January 1.

But a 12-month ban was then imposed by the ICF against both the Belarus and Romanian teams after "new" but unspecified evidence was heard during a July Executive Board meeting in Polish city Kraków.

A CAS panel in July dismissed their appeal and barred the men's squad from Rio 2016.

Andrei and Aliaksandr Bahdanovich were among those to have been implicated in a spate of doping failures within Belarusian canoeing ©Getty Images
Andrei and Aliaksandr Bahdanovich were among those to have been implicated in a spate of doping failures within Belarusian canoeing ©Getty Images

The National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus then threatened further legal action against "individual members" of canoeing’s world governing body in the Swiss civil courts.

Only three women's boats ultimately competed in Rio, with Volha Khudzenka, Nadzeya Liapeshka, Maryna Litvinchuk and Marharyta Makhneva winning a bronze medal in the K4 500 metres category.

In a message posted on their website, CAS revealed that there will be a hearing pitting the Belarus Canoe Association & Belarusian Senior Men's Canoe and Kayak team members versus the ICF.

It is not yet clear exactly what is being contested or if further new evidence has come to light.

But, if Belarus do face a further punishment, it will be an embarrassment for the country so soon after capital city Minsk was awarded hosting rights for the 2019 European Games.

The country has a terrible doping record.

Shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk is among their best-known doping cheats, having been stripped of gold medals won at the London 2012 Olympics and 2005 World Championships for separate failures.

Double world champion Andrei Rybakov is also one of six weightlifters from the country to have failed retests from the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games for anabolic steroids.

This means Belarus faces a ban from the sport when the International Olympic Committee finalises all of their outstanding cases.