Farah, the double Olympic champion at 5,000m and 10,000m, will face, among others, Ethiopia's Muktar Edris, who ended his long winning run by beating him to the world title at the shorter distance in London earlier this month.

Sixteen athletes will emerge from Zurich $50,000 (£64,000/€54,000) richer and carrying a Diamond Trophy as the overall season winner in their event.

France's pole vault world record holder Renaud Lavillenie will be seeking to extend his unique record of winning every Diamond Trophy since the series was established in 2010.

Under the new format, the finals are a winner-takes-all event, with the 12 preceding Diamond League meetings forming an effective qualification for Zurich and the second final in Brussels on September 1.

Lavillenie, a bronze medallist at the London World Championships, will therefore need to find a way of doing what he has not managed to accomplish all season, namely to beat Sam Kendricks of the United States, who recorded his first 6.00m jump earlier this season and took gold in London.

The amiable second lieutenant in the US Army Reserve has won 10 meetings in a row.

Also arriving undefeated is the newly minted world high jump champion from Qatar, Mutaz Essa Barshim, who left the midweek Diamond League in Birmingham clutching the bar he had cleared to set an Alexander Stadium record and 2017 world-leading 2.40m.

Like Barshim, South Africa's Luvo Manyonga is undefeated in eight long jump starts this season and arrives with the year's four furthest jumps and seven of the best eight.

This was topped with his 8.65m at altitude at home in late April and an 8.61m Diamond League record from Shanghai.

An injury while competing in Stockholm appeared to have ended his season, but he returned in time to win world gold in London.

Should the South African perform below par, his compatriot Ruswhal Samaai, the London bronze medallist, and US silver medallist Jarrion Lawson could profit.

In all, 17 new world champions and 14 reigning Olympic champions will be on the slate before a sell-out crowd of 25,000 at the Letzigrund Stadium.

The women's 200m will feature a showdown between Jamaica's Olympic champion Elaine Thompson, returning to form after the illness that undermined her 100m challenge at the recent World Championships, and her bitter rival Dafne Schippers of The Netherlands, who retained her world 200m title in London.

The field also includes Shaunae Miller-Uibo, the Olympic 400m champion from The Bahamas. 

The men's 100m offers world champion Justin Gatlin the opportunity to claim his fourth Diamond Trophy. 

It will be interesting to note what kind of reaction he gets from the highly knowledgeable Letzigrund crowd after the sprinter, who has twice been banned for doping, was booed heavily in London.

In the women's 3,000m steeplechase, Emma Coburn, who led a surprise US 1-2 finish at the World Championships, faces Ruth Jebet, the Olympic champion from Bahrain.

Another surprise winner in London, Norway's 21-year-old 400m hurdler Karsten Warholm, will seek another victory over the US Olympic champion Kerron Clement, who took bronze in London, and Yasmani Copello, the world silver medallist.

Nowhere will the competitive edge be sharper, however, than the men's javelin, where Germany's Olympic champion Thomas Rohler, who began this season with a huge effort of 93.90m, will face the compatriot who beat him to world gold this month, having taken over his second place in the all-time lists after throwing 94.44m - Johannes Vetter.

The women's contest features a similar rivalry between the Czech Republic's 36-year-old 2008 and 2012 Olympic champion Barbora Spotakova, who claimed a second world title earlier this month 10 years after her first, and Croatia's Sara Kolak, the Rio Olympic champion.

Kolak was fourth in London but leads this year's world lists with 68.43m.

In the women's shot put, China's world champion Gong Lijiao takes on Michelle Carter of the US, the Olympic champion.

Meanwhile, the head-to-head to watch in the women's triple jump is between Colombia's 33-year-old Olympic champion Caterine Ibarguen and the 21-year-old Venezuelan who beat her to the world title this month, Yulimar Rojas.

It is hard to see South Africa's world and Olympic champion Caster Semenya failing to earn a 20th successive win in the 800m.

Kenya's new world 1,500m champion Elijah Manangoi faces his compatriot Timothy Cheruyiot and Norway's Filip Ingebrigtsen, the London silver and bronze medallists.

Thirty-year-old Sally Pearson produced one of the performances of the recent World Championships to regain the 100m hurdles title she first earned in 2011 against a field that included the world record holder from the United States, Kendra Harrison.

Her main opposition in Zurich, however, should come from two other US talents - 2008 Olympic champion Dawn Harper-Nelson, who Pearson beat to the London 2012 title, and Sharika Nelson.

The men's 400m features two men who have bettered 44 seconds this season - Steven Gardiner of The Bahamas, the world silver medallist, and Isaac Makwala of Botswana, who was controversially sidelined from the London final due to illness but returned to compete over 200m.

The meeting begins tonight with the women's pole vault at Zurich's central train station, featuring all three world medallists.