All eyes will be focused on the yellow bibs, signalling the overall World Cup leaders, held by France's Martin Fourcade and Laura Dahlmeier of Germany as well as the home team led by last year’s World Cup winner, Gabriela Koukalová.

More than 120,000 fans are expected to travel to Nové Město for the four days of competition with the women’s sprint scheduled for Friday followed by pursuits on Saturday and the first mass starts of the season on Sunday.

With two World Cup stages already complete, Fourcade tops the men's standings with four wins and a third place while Dahlmeier sits atop the women's leader board with three wins, a second and a fourth.

Last weekend, the pair were unstoppable as Fourcade hit 39 of 40 shots, while Dahlmeier hit 37 of 40.

Fourcade has a 95 point lead in the overall standings, ahead of Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway and Russia's Anton Shipulin.

Boe was steadier on the range last week with a clean sprint but two costly penalties in the pursuit cost him vital time.

Shipulin finally got on the podium with two third places and second in the relay, with 38 of 40 shooting.

It is expected both will once again challenge Fourcade this week along with Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway and German Simon Schempp.

Svendsen shot clean in the sprint and pursuit while Schempp hit 39 of 40.

Meanwhile, competition for Dahlmeier in the women's race may come from 20 year-old Justine Braisaz of France.

She was electric on the tracks in the sprint, shot clean and finished marginally behind Dahlmeier last week.

With fewer penalties in the pursuit, she is expected to once again reach the podium.

Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland sits in second place in the overall standings and her shooting was around the 90 per cent level last week, which always make the speedy Finn a threat.

Marie Dorin of France also looked good on the shooting range in the pursuit and relay but seemed to fatigue during the business end of the relay race.

The men's 10 kilometre sprint competition opens the competition tomorrow while the women's 7.5km sprint takes place on Friday (December 16)

Proceedings then continue with the men's 12.5km and women's 10km pursuit competitions taking centre stage on Saturday (December 17). 

Drawing the meeting to a close are the mass start races on Sunday (December 18)