Usain Bolt's absence gives Asafa Powell an extra spur

Asafa Powell is relishing the chance to steal the limelight from his compatriot and friend Usain Bolt when he returns to the scene of his quickest 100metres tonight.

The Jamaican's personal best is the 9.72 sec he clocked in Lausanne in 2008 but, given his season's best is 9.95sec, has his work cut out to get close to that in the Diamond League meeting in Switzerland.

Bolt has opted to skip this race, which means Powell boasts top billing as he goes against France's Christophe Lemaitre.

"At most of these meetings, Usain's the top man," said Powell. "It's always a question of if I'm going to beat him. I'm confident and it's good to feel healthy."

The line-up for the latest round of Diamond League action includes four Olympic champions: 800m runner David Rushida, who has recovered from an ankle injury, 110m hurdler Dayron Robles, javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen, of Norway, and American Stephan Brown Trafton in the discus.

In all, there are 12 world champions in action, including triple jumper Phillips Idowu in his first outing since his very public spat with UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee over his decision to miss the European Team Championships in Stockholm.

Idowu will go head-to-head with the great young threat to his world title in Daegu in August, Teddy Tamgho. The Briton is four points clear at the top of the League standings after getting the better of a lacklustre Tamgho at their last meeting in New York, which was blighted by high winds and heavy rain.

The Frenchman does boast the biggest leap this year of both indoors and outdoors but, as Idowu pointed out, both came when he was not in the competition.

"What matters is what happens when I'm there, not when I'm not," said Idowu, whose longest jump of 17.59m this season, is 8cm short of Tamgho's best effort in 2011.

Live on BBC Three, 7pm