The new four-city event, essentially an indoor equivalent of the outdoor Diamond League circuit, comes as a welcome boost to the sport after an off-season dominated by doping and corruption scandals.

Schippers, who ran a stunning 21.63sec to claim the gold medal in the 200 metres at the IAAF World Championships Beijing last year, is due to compete over 60m in the German city.

The Dutchwoman, who topped the world rankings for the event last year with a time of 7.05 when winning the European Indoor Championships title in Prague, will be up against Dina Asher-Smith.

The Briton finished second behind Schippers in the Czech Republic capital before becoming the first British woman to break the 11 second 100m barrier with a national record of 10.99.

St Kitts and Nevis' remarkable 39-year-old veteran Kim Collins will look to continue his good form in the corresponding men's event, following a world-leading time of 6.53 in Düsseldorf on Wednesday (February 3). 

American Trell Kimmons, twice fourth at the World Indoor Championships and with a best of 6.45, is another who has already shown good form this year.

The men's pole vault promises to be one of the most fiercely fought events.

It pits Canada's world champion Shawn Barber, who has already cleared 6.00 metres this winter, against Germany’s 2013 world champion and 2015 silver medallist Raphael Holzdeppe and France’s world record-holder and London 2012 Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie.

All three have already met in French city Rouen last month, when Holzdeppe came out on top with an indoor best of 5.84m.

Another high quality contest should come in the men's 3,000m, with Kenya’s Augustine Choge up against compatriot and world indoor champion Caleb Ndiku.

Poland’s two-time European indoor champion Adam Kszczot and France’s Pierre-Ambroise Bosse will face-off over 800m, fresh from a meeting in Düsseldorf  where the Pole won in 1min 46.00sec. 

United States' Kendra Harrison, who recently ran a world-leading 7.83, will run her first indoor race on a foreign track over 60m hurdles, where she will face another American, world indoor champion Nia Ali, Britain's European 100m hurdles champion Tiffany Porter and Germany’s world silver medallist Cindy Roleder.

France’s European triple jump champion Benjamin Compaore will go go head-to-head with Portugal's world bronze medallist and Beijing 2008 Olympic champion Nelson Evora.

Two more prodigious teenage stars will clash in the women's 1500, with United States' Mary Cain, who does not turn 20 until May, up against Germany’s 18-year-old emerging star Konstanze Klosterhalfen, winner of the European junior cross-country title in December.

Ethiopia’s world indoor silver medallist Axumawit Embaye, a comparitive veteran at 21 who holds an indoor personal best of 4:02.92, will start as favourite.

Other leading contenders will be United States' Natasha Hastings over 400m, while another home contender will be high jumper Ariane Friedrich, returning to the sport after a three-year absence due to childbirth.

The Karlsruhe Indoor Meeting is due to be followed by the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on February 14, the Globen Galan in Stockholm on February 17 and the Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix on February 20.

The overall individual winner of each event at the end of the series will earn $20,000 (£13,000/€18,000).

One country's athletes who will conspicuous by their absense is Russia, who remain suspended from the IAAF following the World Anti-Doping Agency Independent Commission's allegations last November of systemic doping.

Another athlete who will not be there is Britain's Jessica Ennis-Hill, who announced today that she will miss the entire indoor season due to an Achilles injury as she prioritises a successful defence of her Olympic heptathlon title in August.