The eighth competition of the World Cup season was due to be held in Tyumen before the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) handed the event back to the IBU in the wake of the McLaren Report.

Following the release of the document in December, the IBU held an Executive Board meeting to discuss the findings.

The RBU agreed to give back the hosting rights following the evidence of state-sponsored Russian doping outlined in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-commissioned report.

The IBU announced in January that Kontiolahti, which staged the 2015 World Championships, had stepped in as replacement host.

Tyumen also withdrew from hosting the World Junior Championships, which were instead held in Osrblie in Slovakia.

With Martin Fourcade of France having already wrapped up the overall men's title, attention will be on the race for the women's crown.

Dahlmeier, who was one of the stars of the recent World Championships in Hochfilzen, where she claimed five gold medals, leads the way on 1,023 points.

Double Olympic silver medallist Gabriela Koukalová of the Czech Republic is her closest challenger on 911.

Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland will bid to use home advantage to climb up the leaderboard as she currently has 873.

Fourcade has other targets in his sights in Kontiolahti as he will go for a seventh straight success in the pursuit event.

The Frenchman, a two-time Olympic champion, is also in the running for the overall sprint title.

Action begins tomorrow with the men's 10 kilometres and women's 7.5km sprint races, with the event due to conclude on Sunday (March 12).