TOKYO - Women's world champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva will be aiming to help Russia emulate its Olympic efforts and claim the top of the podium when the International Skating Union's World Team Trophy begins Thursday.

Russia won the gold medal at the inaugural team event at the Sochi Olympics and arrives in Tokyo as top qualifier for the April 16-19 competition at Yoyogi Stadium.

The event features the six best national teams among International Skating Union member nations. Russia tops the list with 8,517 points. Each team will be composed of two men, two women, one pairs skating couple and one ice dance couple for a total of eight skaters.

Tuktamysheva performed the triple axel for the first time in a major competition at last month's world championships in Shanghai, joining a handful of women skaters have successfully landed the difficult jump.

Tuktamysheva is joined on the Russian team by world bronze medallist Elena Radionova and European champions Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov.

The Russian's also boast European silver medallist Maxim Kovtun, European bronze medallist Sergei Voronov and Russian ice dance champions Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin.

Canada won the team silver in Sochi and will look to world pairs champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, world bronze medallists Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje and 2014 world junior champion Nam Nguyen. Jeremy Ten, Gabrielle Daleman and Alaine Chartrand round out the Canadian squad.

The United States, winner of the bronze medal at Sochi, is headlined by ice dancing world silver medallists Madison Chock and Evan Bates and U.S. champion Ashley Wagner. Jason Brown, Gracie Gold and Max Aaron are competing as well as pairs skaters Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim.

Host Japan will be counting on 2014 Olympic champion and reigning world silver medallist Yuzuru Hanyu, world silver medallist Satoko Miyahara, Takahito Mura and 2014 Four Continents champion Kanako Murakami. Siblings Chris and Cathy Reed and Ami Koga and Francis Boudreau Audet round out Japan's lineup.

France's team will be headlined by current world ice dance champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron. They will be joined by Florent Amodio, Romain Ponsart, Mae-Berenice Meite, Laurine Lecavelier and pairs skaters Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres.

Team China consists of world silver medallists Wenjing Sui and Cong Han and Four Continents bronze medallist Han Yan. Nan Song, Zijun Li, Ziquan Zhao and Shiyue Wang and Xinyu Liu are also competing.

The team event consists of two phases of competition: the short program and the free skating. Teams are awarded 12 to 1 team points for men and women and 12 to 7 points for pairs and ice dance couples in the short and free program. The standings are calculated according to the sum of the team points achieved in each phase of the event.