The newly-crowned women's world champion Näslund has been back near her best since returning from a knee injury, which has prevented her from attempting a World Cup campaign this year.

She claimed the top spot in qualifying with a time of 1min 09.74sec ahead of this season's Crystal Globe winner Fanny Smith of Switzerland, who has won five of the nine races so far this season.

France's Marielle Berger Sabbatel and Canada's Courtney Hoffos claimed the third and fourth seeds.

The Russian Ski Federation's Ekaterina Maltseva, Austria's Katrin Ofner, and Canadian pair Hannah Schmidt and Marielle Thompson will be seeded fifth to eighth.

An outsider in the men's competition, Tchiknavorian posted the fastest qualification time in 1:06.69, marginally ahead of compatriot Bastien Midol, who is still in the hunt for second in the season standings.

Tchiknavorian has only stood on the podium twice - finishing second and third in 2017.

Germans Florian Wilmsmann and Daniel Bohnacker sealed the third and fourth seeds, followed by France's Francois Place, Germany's Tim Hronek, Switzerland's Joos Berry and Canada's Reece Howden, who are seeded from fifth to eighth.

Howden sealed the men's title in the previous round in Bakuriani.

Although both women's and men's titles have been sealed by Smith and Howden, the battle for silver in both fields is still wide open.

Thompson, Berger Sabbatel and Alizée Baron of France are separated by 62 points with two races to go.

Swiss pair Jonas Lenherr and Ryan Regez, France's Midol and Sweden's David Mobärg are all separated by just 22 points.