Innsbruck is holding the next IBSF World Cup leg ©IBSF

Innsbruck will host the fifth International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation World Cup from tomorrow in an event doubling as the European Championships.

The Austrian resort will play host amid ever-intensifying focus on the upcoming Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Action is due to begin tomorrow with men and women's skeleton competitions.

Bobsleigh competition will take place over the weekend. 

World Cup leader Jacqueline Loelling will seek a third successive World Cup win as well as a successful defence of her European crown in the women's skeleton event.

Jacqueline Loelling will be chasing more success in Innsbruck ©Getty Images
Jacqueline Loelling will be chasing more success in Innsbruck ©Getty Images

Elizabeth Vathje of Canada lies second in the World Cup standings at the halfway point in the season in front of another German in Tina Hermann.

Martins Dukurs of Latvia won the World Cup and European events last year in Innsbruck and will be hoping for a repeat success this time around in the corresponding men's event.

Yun Sungbin of South Korea will be the man to beat, however, after winning each of the last three World Cup legs.

The event will take place with a continued spotlight on Russians team members, such as Elena Nikitina and Aleksandr Tretiakov, who are expected to compete despite having been retrospectively disqualified from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics for doping.