When this South African city made its debut as a World Cup host last year the men’s podium was filled with home racers.

Two of those medallists - winner Richard Murray, fourth at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and Henri Schoeman, the bronze medallist at those Games, although he was only recently cleared of doping accusations from the event, are back again.

The win was one of six podium finishes last year for Murray, who finished the season ranked fourth in the overall ranking.

Cape Town is the first of 17 venues around the world scheduled to host this year’s World Cup races.

Finishing the race in fifth and sixth respectively in 2017, Austrian duo Lukas Pertl and Lukas Hollaus will be hoping that they can again work effectively together and reap the rewards on the fast and furious sprint course.

But Manoel Messias, the winner of Brazil’s first junior world title in 2015, will also be backing himself to make a significant impact on the leaderboard.

With Japan’s Ai Ueda and the Netherlands’ Rachel Klamer the only top-five finishers from last season to make this year's starting line-up, the opportunity is there for the likes of Britain’s Non Stanford and Vicky Holland, or Chelsea Burns from the United States, to get 2018 off to a winning start.

Ueda’s experience could once again prove invaluable over the bike and run sections, and if she can work up a strong partnership with compatriot Juri Ide the Japanese team has the potential to make a major impact on the podium.

For the hosts, Gillian Sanders will be looking to get the crowd on their feet along with the top-placed South African 12 months ago, Anel Radford.

The women are set to get the event underway at 2.15pm local time, while the men will follow at 4.15pm.

The race will start with a 750 metres swim followed by a 20 kilometres bike ride and a 5km sprint.