Kjeld Nuis leads the men's speed skating World Cup standings going into this weekend's finals ©Getty Images

The International Skating Union (ISU) Speed Skating World Cup is set to conclude this weekend with the final at the Sørmarka Arena in Stavanger.

The Norwegian city stepped in as host after the competition was stripped from the Russian city of Chelyabinsk.

This was due to the doping revelations surrounding Russia contained in the second part of the McLaren Report, released in London on December 9.

Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren found that, as part of an alleged state-sponsored scheme, around 1,000 Russians had doping samples manipulated and tampered with between 2011 and 2015 at events including the 2014 Winter and Paralympic Games in Sochi.

Winter sports have been particularly tarnished with governing bodies for bobsleigh and skeleton, biathlon and cross-country skiing also removing events from Russia.

The ISU concluded that following the "substantial amount of critical evidence and the uncertainty relating to the attendance of the athletes", the "focus of the World Cup would not be on the sport but rather accusations and controversies".

Kjeld Nuis of The Netherlands and Heather Bergsma of the United States will be attempting to defend their positions at the top of the men's and women's overall World Cup standings respectively this weekend.

The Dutchman could win his second consecutive overall World Cup title while Bergsma is hunting her third after success in both 2014 and 2015.

Heather Bergsma currently leads the women's overall standings ©Getty Images
Heather Bergsma currently leads the women's overall standings ©Getty Images

Nuis has dominated this season’s 1,000 metres and 1,500m events so far, winning three out of four 1,000m races and two out of three 1,500m races.

The Dutchman also won this year’s World Championships titles in both distances.

He currently sits at the top of the standings on 630 points while another Dutchman, Kai Verbij, occupies second on 510.

New Zealand's Peter Michael completes the top three with his score of 480.

Bergsma has a strong lead over Marrit Leenstra of The Netherlands in the overall World Cup standings, after a total of five race wins over the past season.

The American has accumulated a commanding 935 points while Leenstra sits way back on 730.

Second ranked Leenstra has not won a single race, but she has consistently collected silver and bronze medals throughout the season, to stay in contention

Another Dutch skater, Ireen Wüst, completes the top three on 700.

Action is set to begin tomorrow and conclude on Sunday (March 12).