The Italian synchronised swimming team for the FINA World Championships practice their routine at the Oriental Sports Center yesterday.

Olympic and world champion Cesar Cielo's doping case will be decided before he can compete at the 14th FINA World Championships, sport's highest court said late on Wednesday.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has scheduled a hearing next Wednesday in Shanghai, where the Brazilian swimmer will be preparing for his first event four days later.

"The arbitral panel will start its deliberations and will render its final decisions no later than (Friday) July 22," CAS said in a statement on Wednesday.

Cielo is set to defend his world titles in the 50 and 100 meter freestyle events, but swimming's governing body FINA wants him banned.

FINA has challenged a Brazilian federation decision to give Cielo only a warning after he tested positive for furosemide, a banned diuretic and masking agent, at a May meet in Rio de Janeiro.

The Olympic 50 freestyle champion said he consumed the drug in a contaminated batch of a food supplement he regularly used.

Three other Brazilian swimmers, Nicholas Santos, Henrique Barbosa and Vinicius Waked, also tested positive for furosemide and were let off with warnings by their national federation. Waked has previously served a two-month ban for a separate doping offense.

CAS said FINA's appeals against all four will be heard as part of the same fast track procedure.

Cielo could face a ban of two years under World Anti-Doping Agency rules.

If banned for more than six months, the Brazilian star could be excluded from defending his Olympic title at the 2012 London Games under existing International Olympic Committee rules.