The IAAF had appealed decisions made by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency following the biological passport cases of six athletes including Yuliya Zaripova and Sergey Kirdyapkin

Decisions relating to the doping cases of six Russian athletes are set to be issued by March 24, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has announced.

The sanctions handed to Valeriy Borchin, Olga Kaniskina, Sergey Bakulin, Sergey Kirdyapkin, Vladimir Kanaykin and Yuliya Zaripova by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) were appealed last March by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

All six cases arose from the IAAF Athlete Biological Passport programme. When announcing the appeals, the IAAF stated that it disagreed with the "selective disqualification of results" applied by RUSADA.

Zaripova and Kirdyapkin both claimed Olympic gold medals at London 2012, in the 3000m steeplechase and 50km race walk respectively.

Zaripova also won the world title in 2011. She received a ban of two and a half years backdated from July 25, 2013, which was accompanied by two periods in which her results were to be annulled, but the dates do not include when she won her world gold in Daegu.

Kirdyapkin was handed a ban of three years and two months from October 15, 2012, with his results from July 20, 2009 to September 20, 2009; June 29, 2010 to August 29, 2010, and December 17, 2011 to June 11, 2012, to be annulled. Given those date ranges, that would not affect his London 2012 gold.

Further details of the bans and annulment of results for Borchin, Kaniskina, Bakulin and Kanaykin can be found here, as reported by AW last year.

The statement released by CAS on Monday (March 21), in which it announced decisions were "expected" to be issued by March 24, can be found here.

Meanwhile, four Russian track and field athletes were on Monday reported to have tested positive for meldonium.

According to Reuters, the Russian athletics federation said four athletes had tested positive for the substance, which was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list from January 1 of this year, at the Russian Winter Indoor Athletics Championships in February.

Long-distance runner Andrei Minzhulin is reported as being among those four athletes.

Nadezhda Kotlyarova has also reportedly tested positive for meldonium, though it is unclear if the sprinter, who placed sixth in her 400m semi-final at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing last year and claimed European indoor 4x400m silver in 2013, is among the aforementioned four athletes.