The 2017 IOF World Ski Orienteering Championships are set to begin tomorrow in Russian city Krasnoyarsk ©WSOC

The 2017 International Orienteering Federation (IOF) World Ski Orienteering Championships are set to begin tomorrow in Russian city Krasnoyarsk, where 94 athletes from 21 nations will be competing for honours.

The IOF confirmed in December that the 22nd edition of the event would remain in Krasnoyarsk, despite evidence of state-sponsored doping in the country.

The decision came after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-commissioned investigation spearheaded by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren found no evidence to link Russian orienteering athletes to any wrongdoing.

As a consequence, the world governing body concluded that there "shall continue to be no restriction on the participation by Russian athletes in IOF events".

The hosts, whose team features five Krasnoyarsk citizens in Vladimir Barchukov, Polina Frolova, Andrey Grigoriev, Yulia Tarasenko and Kirill Veslelov, are expected to perform strongly along with Sweden.

Russia’s Andrey Lamov and Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson will be looking to build on their success at last month’s European Ski Orienteering Championships (ESOC) in Finland, where they each won two individual gold medals.

Competitors such as Norway’s Lars Hol Moholdt and Bulgaria’s Stanimir Belomazhev, the respective gold and bronze medallists in the ESOC middle-distance race, will also be hoping to hit peak form in the most prestigious event of the season.

Action at the IOF World Ski Orienteering Championships will be spread across six days ©WSOC
Action at the IOF World Ski Orienteering Championships will be spread across six days ©WSOC

The mixed sprint relay will mark the start of competition tomorrow and will be followed by the men’s and women’s sprint races on Wednesday (March 8).

The women’s middle-distance race is scheduled for Thursday (March 9) with the men’s on Friday (March 10).

The penultimate day of action will see the men’s and women’s long-distance mass start events take place, while the men’s and women’s relay mass starts will round out proceedings on Sunday (March 12).

This year marks the second time that Krasnoyarsk, a city of more than one million inhabitants in Siberia, has staged the IOF World Ski Orienteering Championships, having also done so in 2000.

The venue to be used is the Biathlon Academy Ski Centre, a stadium surrounded by forest and that provides ideal facilities for the Championships.

The six days of competition will serve as a test event for the 2019 Winter Universiade.