Taking place over four days, the fourth event on the 2018-2019 schedule will feature pursuit, relay and sprint action, with the men's sprint race set to take place on Friday (January 11).

On the women's side it was Marte Olsbu Røiseland who won the last sprint race in Nové Město to claim her first World Cup title.

The 28-year-old Norwegian beat Germany's reigning Olympic sprint champion Laura Dahlmeier to the top of the podium in a time of 19min 44.6sec having shot clean.

Dahlmeier, who has battling injury, will therefore hope to take the win this time around on home snow, although neither of them currently top the overall standings.

Top of the pile is Italy's Dorothea Wierer on 381 points, while Slovakia's Paulina Fialkova is second and another Italian in Lisa Vittozzi is third.

They will all be looking to perform well in tomorrow's sprint, which is due to start at 1.30pm local time.

In men's action another Norwegian, Johannes Thinges Bø, will look to continue his strong form when their action begins on Friday, having won all three races at the last World Cup event in the Czech Republic.

The 25-year-old, who won individual gold at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics last year, currently tops the overall World Cup rankings by 116 points in front of Russia's Alexander Loginov.

With 60 points awarded for a race win, Loginov will no doubt be desperate to ensure Bø does not dominate once again in Germany, although he was a full 21 seconds off the pace in Nové Město.

France's five-time Olympic champion Martin Fourcade, who has won the last seven overall World Cup titles in a row, is also inevitably among the challengers.

Following the sprint action, pursuit races for men and women will take place on Saturday (January 12), with relay races then scheduled for Sunday (January 13).