The field assembled here across 16 disciplines - the other 16 will be settled in Brussels on Friday (August 31) night - is due to include 11 Olympic champions, 12 world champions and 11 European champions.

Will Norway's 17-year-old wonder-boy Jakob Ingebrigtsen, a late addition to the men's 1,500 metres field, make a serious impression on the two Kenyans who have dominated proceedings this season, Timothy Cheruiyot and his training partner Elijah Manangoi, the defending and world champion?

Will one of the mighty German javelin throwers top the podium again? 

Will Britain's European 100 and 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith, joint fastest this year over the shorter distance and out on her own over the longer, add another distinction to her soaring career?

And perhaps most fascinatingly of all, what will happen in the men's long jump when world and defending champion Luvo Manyonga of South Africa meets the startling new talent of 20-year-old Juan Miguel Echevarria of Cuba, who almost lept out of the pit at the Stockholm Diamond League in recording 8.83m, which would have been the fifth farthest legal mark recorded but for a following wind of 2.1 metres per second – 0.1 over the limit.

Last season's introductions of the winner-takes-all format for the finals heightened the drama and left some unexpected athletes feeling, in the words of the Bahamian sprinter Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who completed a 200/400m double across the Zurich and Brussels meetings, "happy, happy , happy".

Kazakhstan's London 2012 Olympic champion Olga Rypakova in the triple jump, the Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch's javelin victory with 88.50m and shot putter Darrell Hill of the United States were three who earned unexpected Diamond Trophies in their events last year – and the accompanying winner's cheques, which this year will be $50,000 (£38,000/€43,000).

How happy will Echevarria be at the end of tomorrow night?

Although his extraordinary achievement in Stockholm cannot stand in the main lists, he still holds the best valid jump of 2018 with 8.68m, set on his 20th birthday at Badlangensalza in Germany on August 11.

That took over the world lead of 8.58 set by Manyonga, who took silver behind the Cuban at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in March.

Ingebrigtsen’s European title wins over 1,500 and 5,000m were little masterpieces of judgement and audacity - but victory, rather than a swift time, was the object in both cases.

 If the Kenyans go off hard it will surely be hard for him.

But he will have some moral support in the form of his elder brother Filip Ingebrigtsen, whose European 1,500m title he took this month, and who is the fastest man this year behind the Kenyan duo with the 3min 30.01sec he ran in Monaco, when his kid brother finished one place behind him in his personal best of 3:31.18 to stand fourth in the 2018 world list. 

Olympic champion Thomas Röhler defeated his compatriots Andreas Hofmann and world champion Johannes Vetter this month to win the European javelin title in Berlin. 

But can defending champion Vadlejch upset the German powers again?

Asher-Smith will face Dafne Schippers, the double world 200m champion, over 100m, having beaten the Dutchwoman over 100 and 200 at the European Championships in Berlin.

Mujinga Kambundji will fully engage the home crowd, having become the first Swiss under 11 seconds this season. 

World silver medallist Marie Josée Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast will also expect to figure strongly.

In the men's 200m, Noah Lyles of the US, who heads the 2018 rankings with 19.65, looks hugely ready to defend his title.

But Turkey's world and European champion Ramil Guliyev, who ran 19.76 to win the latter title, will be doing his best to make sure the ebullient 21-year-old doesn’t have it all his own way, as will Swiss record holder Alex Wilson.

Olympic champion Ryan Crouser of the US, world champion Tom Walsh of New Zealand and Hill are back in the Diamond League shot put final, with a new contender in their midst, European champion Michal Haratyk, who has thrown over 22m this season. 

The women's 5,000m is stacked with talent including Ethiopia's 1,500m world record holder Genzebe Dibaba, European record holder and champion Sifan Hassan of The Netherlands and Kenya's world and defending champion Hellen Obiri.

Olympic, world and twice European pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi of Greece, world indoor champion Sandi Morris of the US and London 2012 champion Jenn Suhr of the US, enjoying what she describes as a "revitalised" career, are all capable on the day of victory.

The home crowd will have another big point of focus in the women’s 400m hurdles, where the recently established European champion, Lea Sprunger, takes on defending and Rio 2016 champion Dalilah Muhammad of the US.

World and European champion Mariya Lasitskene’s rage at failing to clear more than 2.00m in winning the latter title this month offered a clear indication of the Russian neutral's standards.

She will need to be at that level at least to defend her Diamond League title against a field that includes the Bulgarian who took silver on countback in Berlin after also clearing 2.00m, Mirela Demireva, world silver medallist Yuliya Levchenko of Ukraine, and Germany’s European bronze medallist Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch.

World and European 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm of Norway is likely to be involved in an action replay of last year’s Diamond League final where, as is his wont, he went off hard, but was caught over the final stages by Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Isles. 

European silver medallist Yasmani Copello of Turkey will be ready to capitalise on any errors.

Britain’s European 400m champion Matthew Hudson-Smith will have to be at his very best to compete with the US athlete who beat him at the Birmingham Diamond League meeting, Fred Kerley, and Steven Gardiner of The Bahamas, second in this year’s world list with 43.87.

It is hard to see anyone preventing South Africa’s world and Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya from successfully defending her Diamond League title, although world and Olympic silver medallist Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi and world bronze medallist Ajee Wilson of the US will try all they know.

Tonight’s exhibition men’s pole vault competition - the fourth to be held in Zurich’s main railway station concourse - turned out to be the best ever seen under the Diamond League banner, even though the Diamond League final will take place in Brussels on Friday night, with six men clearing 5.81m.

That has only happened on three previous occasions - at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the Osaka World Championships of 2007 and at the indoor meeting in Clermont-Ferrand.

Having earned a European silver medal earlier this month in Berlin with an outdoor personal best of 6.00, Timor Morgunov won an event packed with spectators thanks to an all-or-nothing last effort that also secured him an indoor personal best of 5.91.

The 21-year-old Russian, competing as an Authorised Neutral Athlete, had to clear in order to move above Canada’s 2015 world champion Shawnacy Barber, who had gone out of the competition leading on countback after clearing a season’s indoor best of 5.86.

Morgunov had added a centimetre to his indoor personal best by clearing that mark in his previous round in what was the fourth pole vault event to have been held in this venue.

It was also a very good day for another 21-year-old, Australia’s Commonwealth Games champion Kurtis Marschall, who set successive indoor personal bests of 5.81 and 5.86, finishing in third place.