Five 6.00 metres-plus vaulters will gather at the Arena Stade Couvert, including the two men who have been seeing and raising each other’s efforts in the space of the last few weeks - France’s very own Renaud Lavillenie and Mondo Duplantis, the 21-year-old who succeeded him as world record holder last year.

Having recovered from a broken thumb - incurred last July when his pole broke while he was training in his back garden - the 34-year-old Frenchman has started the 2021 indoor season in superb fashion, starting with victory at the opening Gold meeting in Karlsruhe on January 29 with 5.95m.

Two days later at the Dusseldorf Silver meeting Duplantis - who is based in the United States but competes for Sweden - took over the lead in the season’s rankings with an effort of 6.01m.

But that lasted only a few hours as Lavillenie posted his first 6.00m clearance since 2016 at the meeting in Tourcoing, recording 6.02m.

Duplantis returned himself to the head of the 2021 indoor rankings on Saturday (February 6), however, as he cleared 6.03m in Rouen.

Also in the mix will be the two-time world champion from the United States, Sam Kendricks, Brazil’s Olympic champion Thiago Braz and world bronze medallist Piotr Lisek of Poland.

If Lavillenie versus Duplantis promises to be a stand-out rivalry in the field, the track has its own head-to-heads in prospect.

In the women’s 3,000 metres, world 1500m and 10,000m world champion Sifan Hassan of The Netherlands will take on Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech, the 3,000m steeplechase world champion and world-record holder.

Hassan, who broke the world hour record at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels last September, has not raced indoors since the 2018 World Indoor Championships, where she took 3,000m silver and 1500m bronze, while Chepkoech arrives 11 days after her 3,000m victory in Karlsruhe.

The men’s 1500m will see a match-up between Ethiopia’s 21-year-old Samuel Tefera, who set a world indoor record of 3min 31.04sec in 2019, and Norway’s 20-year-old double European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

Also in a rich field are the 2017 world bronze medallist Filip Ingebrigtsen, world bronze medallist Marcin Lewandowski of Poland, who outsprinted Ingebrigtsen junior to the European indoor 1500m title in Glasgow in 2019, and France’s five-time European under-23 champion Jimmy Gressier.

Britain’s Holly Bradshaw returns to action in the women's pole vault after her victory in Rouen, where she cleared 4.85m, the second best clearance of her career.

Bradshaw, European indoor champion in 2013, faces Canada’s Commonwealth champion Alysha Newman and Greece’s Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi, who will be seeking an improvement on her disappointing 4.43m best in Rouen.

Ethiopia's Selemon Barega returns to action in the men's 3,000m just three days after his 3:34.62 1500m career best and world-leading run in Metz.

Burkina Faso’s Hugues Fabrice Zango, who broke the world indoor triple jump record 23 days ago with 18.07m, will be seeking his third consecutive victory in Liévin.

World 110m hurdles champion Grant Holloway, who opened his 2021 campaign by equalling his own North American 60m hurdles indoor record of 7.35sec, will face a field that includes Spain’s Olympic silver medallist Orlando Ortega.

With Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, whose 7.08 clocking in Karlsruhe tops this year’s women’s 60m rankings, having pulled out with a slight injury, the focus falls on Javianne Oliver of the United States, who clocked 7.10 in Metz.

The men’s 800m will bring together Poland’s world indoor champion Adam Kszczot, recent Karlsruhe winner Elliot Giles of Britain, France’s 2017 world champion Pierre-Ambroise Bosse, and world silver medallist Amel Tuka of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The long jump field is headed by Cuba’s world indoor champion Juan Miguel Echevarria, who recorded 8.18m for the win in Karlsruhe.

The women’s 1500m race features world bronze medallist Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia and Britain’s world indoor silver medallist Laura Muir, both of whom will be making their 2021 indoor debut.