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World women's champion Valerie Adams and world junior men's champion Jacko Gill will compete against one another in the shot put in a fascinating twist to tomorrow night's international athletics meeting at Christ's College.

The shot competition is for all-comers with men, women, and juniors using the appropriate weights for their respective grades.

Seventeen-year-old Gill had been going to compete only in the discus, in which even though he does not train specifically for it he is ranked No5 in the world in his age group.

But with no international competition for Adams and Timaru strongman Tom Walsh looking her main competition, the sensational teenager confirmed he will also compete in the shot.

It creates an intriguing match-up between the two field superstars.

Adams, starting her build-up to the Olympics at this meet, said it would certainly bring something different for the crowd. "But I'll approach it the same as I approach every other competition, and do my own job."

The Olympic and world champion has a best of 21.24m with the women's 4kg shot. Gill has thrown 24.45m with the 5kg shot and 20.38m with the open men's 7.26kg shot.

The Christchurch meeting starts her preparation for the world indoor championships in Istanbul in mid-March.

"I'm building towards the world indoors, so it's an important phase I'm in at the moment," she said.

"On Saturday I'm looking to open my season well, and I'm feeling very good with where I need to be at this time of year."

Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis is another star competing in Christchurch, and he will step back in time to run the track feature, a handicap two-mile race on the grass - 50 years after Peter Snell set world 800m and half mile records, also on grass, not far away at Lancaster Park.

Lining up against him will be his Michigan-based training partners Will Leer and Brandon Bethke (US) and Lee Emmanuel (UK), as well as another American Patrick Tarpy and Kiwi middle-distance men Brett Tingay, Alex Parlane, Andrew Davidson, and Caden Shields.

"I've trained on grass my whole life," he said. "I never trained on a synthetic track until I went to the States, and I can't wait to get the chance to run in a professional meet on grass."

Promoter Paul Coughlan said the Christ's College ground staff had done an "absolutely stunning" job preparing the track for the meeting.

"It's the best grass track I've ever seen," he said. He's hoping for a sellout crowd of up to 4000 at the picturesque riverside sportsground.