The now biennial event, which began life as the World Cup back in 1977, is based once again on a points competition between four teams representing Europe, Africa, Asia/Pacific and the Americas, who will field two athletes per event - but it includes a number of new features.

A sold-out crowd on both days in the 17,000 capacity stadium will witness elimination races in the 3,000 metres and 3,000m steeplechase, where athletes in last position after the third, fourth, fifth and sixth laps will drop out.

In the "horizontal field events" - long jump, triple jump, shot put, discus, hammer and javelin - athletes will have three trials as part of their qualification, after which the highest ranked from each of the four teams will progress.

Two more athletes are jettisoned in round five, meaning that round six will see the two remaining athletes contesting victory.

Additionally, each team has a non-competing team captain, in the manner of golf's Ryder Cup, who will be responsible for playing a "joker" for a men's and a women's event on each of the two days of competition, meaning any points won will be doubled.

And there will be 4x400m mixed relays in which the order of running can be altered at the last minute.

Men's and women's points are combined to determine the first winners of a 140 kilograms trophy that has been specially made in the Czech Republic out of Bohemian crystal.

The team captains for Europe, Africa, Asia/Pacific and the Americas are, respectively, Britain's former 110m hurdles world champion and record holder Colin Jackson, Morocco's double world 400m hurdles champion Nezha Bidouane, double world 400m hurdles champion Jana Pittman of Australia and long jump world record holder Mike Powell of the United States.

"This is a great moment because it's the climax of what has been an outstanding season," said Coe at the pre-event press conference here.

"It's a rare opportunity for athletes to compete on a global platform but in a team event.

"This is a great opportunity, a great format to do thing slightly differently.

"Let's absorb the lessons, the hints, the clues.

"Not everything that you see tottering down the Paris catwalk ends up in a department store, but there are derivatives - there are things that you can absorb and take forward.

"These are things we should be trying.

"We shouldn't be afraid.

"Sometimes they're going to work, sometimes they’re not, but we shouldn't just run for the hills if something we do try to do differently doesn't come off the first or second edition.

"I was delighted that the Czech federation picked up the baton when I said we wanted innovation, we wanted challenging change, and there will be concepts and formats that you will see over the next couple of days that I think we can understand and learn from and absorb and adapt and maybe even put into some of the mainstream competitions that we need to change."

The IAAF has been preparing changes to its calendar after the current contract for the IAAF Diamond League series ends at the end of next season.

This event comes two months after a self-styled Athletics World Cup, set up under the aegis of British Athletics, took place at the London Olympic Stadium

This event, which has a weight of tradition behind it, has attracted a far stronger field of sometimes weary but in the main part willing athletes, and it promises to deliver some serious contests.

Top of the bill, perhaps, will be a final meeting over 400m hurdles between Norway's world and European champion Karsten Warholm and the adopted Qatari runner Abderrahman Samba who has been unbeaten this season and set the second fastest time of 46.98sec in July before winning gold at the recently concluded Asian Games.

Also in the mix is Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands, who beat Warholm to the IAAF Diamond League title in Zurich last month.

The men's 3,000m steeplechase will feature as team-mates and rivals Kenya's world and Olympic champion Conseslus Kipruto and Soufiane El Bakkali, the Moroccan world silver medallist whom he beat to the IAAF Diamond League title in Zurich last week despite losing a shoe after a lap and a half.

Also prime rivals and team mates in the women's 100m are Britain's double European champion Dina Asher-Smith and Dafne Schippers, the double world 200m champion from The Netherlands.

Schippers will also feature in a stellar women's 200m that also includes Olympic 400m champion and Diamond League 200m champion Shaunae Miller-Ubo of The Bahamas and the Ivory Coast's world 100 and 200m silver medallist Marie-Jose Ta Lou.

The men's pole vault features France's world record holder Renaud Lavillenie, world champion Sam Kendricks of the US, and Russia's 21-year-old Authorised Neutral Athlete who earned European silver with a personal best of 6.00m in Berlin before winning the Diamond League title last week, Timur Morgunov.

The men's 100m features Diamond League 200m champion Noah Lyles of the US, who faces the challenge of South Africa's Akani Simbine and China's Bingtian Su, who has twice equalled the Asian record of 9.91 and won the Asian title in 9.92.