World champion Roman Repilov has been cleared to compete ©Getty Images

After a long build-up in China punctuated by COVID-19 scares and a serious crash, the Luge World Cup begins tomorrow at Yanqing National Sliding Centre.

The World Cup is also a Beijing 2022 test event, taking place at a key Winter Olympic venue.

Top-level lugers have been in China for several weeks to train and test the track in advance of this competition.

There have been coronavirus scares along the way, and the International Luge Federation (FIL) confirmed yesterday three athletes had tested positive for COVID-19 at various points since arriving in China.

Athletes impacted, including world champion Roman Repilov from Russia and Germany's back-to-back Olympic doubles kings Tobias Wendl and Tobias Artl, were given extra training runs today to make up for opportunities missed because they were isolating.

Yanqing National Sliding Centre is staging the first World Cup of the new luge season ©Getty Images
Yanqing National Sliding Centre is staging the first World Cup of the new luge season ©Getty Images

Nations Cup racing also took place today to qualify unseeded athletes for the World Cup.

Latvia's Kristers Aparjods was the fastest man, Lisa Schulte of Austria won the women's race and Canada's Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski were the quickest pair.

The FIL has also introduced additional safety measures at the sliding track after Poland's Mateusz Sochowicz suffered a fractured kneecap in a training crash.

Sochowicz crashed into a closed barrier that should have been open.

He cut his right leg to the bone in the accident and faces a lengthy spell out of the sport.