Olympic 15 kilometres champion Öberg and Samuelsson, part of the victorious Swedish 4x7.5km relay team at Pyeongchang 2018, triumphed in the respective sprints in the season opener at the same venue last weekend.

They will aim to secure their second straight wins tomorrow, with the sprints starting a busy weekend of racing.

After the two sprint races, the women's 10km pursuit and men's 4x7.km relay are scheduled to take place on Saturday (December 4) following a rest day on Friday (December 3).

The World Cup leg in Östersund concludes with the men's 12.5km pursuit and women's 4x6km relay on Sunday (December 5).

Norway's three-time defending World Cup champion Johannes Thingnes Bø, Olympic gold medallist in the men's 20km individual, and France's Olympic relay champion Simon Desthieux are level on 88 points at the top of the men's standings after the first races of the campaign.

Czech Republic's Markéta Davidová leads the women's leaderboard following her win in the 15km race last Saturday (November 27).

Only fully vaccinated, recovered or polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-tested athletes and officials will be allowed to take part in the IBU’s events under its COVID-19 protocol.

The IBU had previously encouraged athletes, coaches, staff and other officials to get vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to the opening of the new season.

The IBU revealed prior to the first event in Östersund that 98 per cent of team members, including athletes, coaches, officials and technicians, at the event at the Swedish resort are fully vaccinated against, or have recently recovered from, COVID-19.

The remaining two per cent have to conduct SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests every 72 hours.