He is hoping to replicate his success in this format from the World Cup in Tiszaujvaros last year and made the perfect start by dominating the first heat.

Today saw semi-final elimination rounds take place, with men and women tackling a sprint-distance course consisting of a 750 metres swim, 20 kilometre cycle and 5km run.

Polyanskiy crossed the line first in 53 min 12sec, in front of second place Gabor Faldum of Hungary in 53:13 and Joao Silva of Portugal, who took third in 53:14. 

“I am feeling very good, for me it is like a warm-up," said Polyanskiy.

"But on the last run I had to give a little push because there was a lot of people.

"I like racing in China, I was here about seven or eight years ago and the people are always very nice, nice people and nice organisation.

"Tomorrow will be an experience for me, but we will see, I think it will be a great race tomorrow.”

The top nine finishers from the three men's semi-finals have made it through to tomorrow's final.

A photo finish was needed to see the winner of the second semi-final, with Austria's Lukas Hollaus, Luke William of Australia and Canada's Tyler Mislawchuk all crossing the line together in 54:09.

The victory was eventually handed to Hollaus.

Mexican Rodrigo Gonzalez won the third semi-final in 54:07 on the same circuit that he won his first ever World Cup event last season.

Two women’s semi-finals were also held, with the top 14 athletes from each booking their places in the final.

In a sprint to the end that required a photo finish, Australia’s Emma Jeffcoat claimed victory in the first semi-final in 59:52.

Coming in second was Great Britain’s Jessica Learmonth while her compatriot Sophie Coldwell took third.

The second women's semi-final saw Belgian Claire Michel cross the finish line first in a time of 58:54, followed closely by Yuka Sato of Japan in 58:57 and local favourite Chunyan Xiong in 59:05.

“I felt really great during the whole race, and I’ll be ready for tomorrow as well”, said Michel.

"I had a pretty good swim, and we kept the control on the bike so we could all see where we were on the run, keeping an eye on everyone."

Both of tomorrow's finals will be contested by 30 athletes, as the fastest athletes outside the automatic qualification places also advanced.

The finals will be contested over a super sprint distance format, featuring a 400m swim, 10km bike and 2.5km run.