The German started her season in Frankfurt a few days ago where she clocked 13.70secs in the 100 metres hurdles and threw the javelin 49.73 metres.

The 30-year-old, who claimed silver at the 2017 World Championships, had been due to compete in Ratingen last June prior to the Olympics only to withdraw, citing side effects from the COVID-19 vaccination.

Despite the setback, Schäfer was able to participate at Tokyo 2020 where she achieved 6,419 points to finish seventh.

Belgium’s Hanne Maudens and Germany’s Sophie Weissenberg are also set to be among the contenders at the Ratingen Mehrkampf-Meeting.

Léonie Cambours of France, Germany’s Anna Maiwald and Britain’s Katie Stainton are the other athletes on the entry list who have surpassed 6,000 points.

Schäfer’s training partner Niklas Kaul headlines the men’s decathlon field in Ratingen.

The world champion is set to go up against compatriot Kai Kazmirek and world indoor silver medallist Simon Ehammer of Switzerland as well as five other decathletes who have exceeded 8,000 points.

Kaul is entitled to a wildcard entry for this year’s World Athletics Championships in Oregon in the United States as the defending champion, while Kazmirek is in a similar position as the winner of the 2021 Combined Events Challenge.

Should they both wish to compete, it will be down to the German Athletics Federation to decide which wildcard entry to accept, meaning the Ratingen meeting will be key for the duo to showcase their form.

Ehammer was a heptathlon runner-up at the World Indoor Championships in Serbian capital Belgrade in March, finishing behind Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner of Canada with a Swiss record of 6,363 points.

German trio Mathias Brugger, Tim Nowak and Andreas Bechmann are also set to challenge along with Sweden’s Marcus Nilsson having previously broken the 8,000-point barrier.

Competition is due to start tomorrow and conclude on Sunday (May 8).

Tomorrow is also set to see Rio Maior in Portugal stage a World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold meeting.

It will be the first top race-walking event to be held in Portugal since 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Peru’s Kimberly García León, winner of the 20 kilometres race in Rio Maior in 2017, leads the women’s field.

The Peruvian race walker has achieved podium finishers in all three of her races this year, but she will be seeking her first victory following runner-up finishes at the South American Championships, the 35km in Dudince in Slovakia, and a third-place finish at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Muscat in Oman.

Brazil’s Caio Bonfim, who won in the Portuguese town back in 2014, is fresh from a victory in Poděbrady in the Czech Republic and will be eyeing the men’s crown.

Marc Tur, who finished fourth over 50km at last year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympics, will be competing below his preferred distance.

But the Spaniard is still expected to be competitive having come second at the Spanish Championships earlier this year, setting a personal best of 1:21:36.