Javi Fernandez to lead TeamESP on the ice in Helsinki

We now know who will be lining up for Spain at the 2017 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki. Javier Fernandez, Javier Raya, Adria Diaz and Olivia Smart will be flying the Spanish flag in the last major international competition of the season. Fernandez will travel to Finland as the main man to beat – the two-time defending champion will be looking to make it a hat-trick and ensure that he goes into next year's Winter Olympic Games with top billing.

Fernandez was crowned world champion for the first time – becoming the first-ever Spaniard to achieve the feat in his sport – in Shanghai in 2015, the year after the Sochi Olympics. The image of the Madrilenian holding his head in incredulity after clinching victory will never be forgotten. Twelve months later, he hung tough to claim his second world title in Boston amid fierce competition, particularly from Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu, who was determined to reclaim the throne he had lost to Fernandez the previous year.

Now, fresh off once again proving that he is peerless in Europe by capturing his fifth straight continental crown, Fernandez is gunning to taste gold on the global stage for the third time and conclude his season in style. This instalment of the World Championships takes on extra significance as the last before the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang. Will the Spaniard head into the next Games with three world titles under his belt from his last four appearances at the competition, will Yuzuru manage to pull level with a second triumph of his own or will someone else burst on to the scene to break the Hispano-Japanese duopoly of recent years? Follow the action in the last week of March to find out.