The track, named Nathalie after the daughter of local Organising Committee President Herbert Santer's daughter, a former biathlete and now race director who was responsible for the renewal of the track, is five kilometres long and includes an 18 per cent uphill gradient.

More than 200 athletes from 29 nations will be competing in the 10km ladies' and 15km men's events, as well as in pursuit competitions, at the Italian venue this weekend.

In men's events, France's Maurice Manificat will be looking to break the French record of nine World Cup distance race wins he equalled in Davos, Switzerland, last week.

However, he will face extremely tough competition from 21-year-old Norwegian Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who, following his under-23 title win in last year’s World Cup, has won five of the opening seven races of the season to place himself at the top of the leaderboard with a 224-point gap over nearest rival Alexander Bolshunov of Russia.

Last year's World Cup champion Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway will also be in Toblach as he looks to improve on his relatively poor start to the season, in which he has won just two medals.

The women's standings are a lot closer with six different athletes having won the opening seven races of the season.

Sweden’s two-time Olympic champion Charlotte Kalla currently tops the leaderboard on 470 points but is being closely challenged by fellow Olympic gold medalist Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and last year's overall World Cup winner Heidi Weng, both of Norway, who have 392 and 385 points respectively.

The event gets underway tomorrow with the ladies' 10 km at 11am before the men race in the 15km at 1.30pm, both local time.

Sunday (December 17), the final day of the event, will see the ladies' 10km pursuit and men's 15km take place.