Updated
The next chapter in the growing rivalry between Olympic gold and silver medallists Greg Rutherford and Mitchell Watt will be the headline act at Saturday night's Perth Track Classic.
Rutherford and Watt will face each other on long jump runway for the first time since the Briton claimed gold at last year's London Olympics.
The Brisbane-based Watt had entered the Games as favourite, courtesy of his second placing at the 2011 world championships in Daegu and his outstanding personal best of 8.54 metres.
But Rutherford, buoyed by the parochial home crowd on the same night Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah won gold for Great Britain, upset the Australian to win 8.31m to 8.16m.
The 26-year-old, who posted a PB of 8.35m earlier in 2012, belongs to the Dan Pfaff stable of athletes based in Arizona, which also consists of Australia's 2008 Olympic pole vault gold medallist Steve Hooker.
It was a coup for Perth Track Classic organisers and Athletics Australia to secure the appearance of Rutherford, who will also face off against Watt at next month's IAAF World Challenge meet in Melbourne.
The pair are good friends and although they will effectively be competing out of season on the domestic circuit, Saturday night still promises to be an intriguing contest.
Athletics Western Australia chief executive Wayne Loxley says the meeting between Rutherford and Watt will be the major attraction on Saturday night.
"It's very rare you get a current gold versus silver medallist from the most recent Olympic Games," he told Grandstand.
"They've got a strong rivalry after London and that continues to grow, so that is something you can really build an event around and we're all excited about having that event as our feature card."
The long jump competition will also feature Australia's 2010 world indoor champion Fabrice Lapierre, who leapt a wind-assisted 8.78m in Perth at the national titles that same year.
Ghana's Ignisious Gaisah, who won silver the 2005 world championships and claimed the gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, will also take part.
Aside from the long jump, the Perth Track Classic will feature an an array of Olympic and world champions with Hooker making a homecoming of sorts to compete in the pole vault.
Hooker left his Perth base late last year to move to the United States to work under Pfaff and he will compete against British trainer partner Steve Lewis and 2007 world champion Brad Walker on Saturday night.
Dani Samuels, who won gold in the women's discus at the 2009 world championships in Berlin, will also be in action off the back of her excellent showing at last Saturday night's Sydney Track Classic.
Samuels produced five A-qualifying throws at Homebush, highlighted by a 64.46m effort, which is the fourth best of her career.
Her personal best of 65.84m looks in danger this domestic season and Loxley says she will receive a warm reception in Perth.
"She's obviously in good shape, I know her and her coach Dennis Knowles have worked hard to fine tune her preparation," he said.
"She's a legitimate world champ, who is always a crowd favourite."
Loxley says he is hopeful a crowd in excess of 5,000 will make their way to the WA Athletics Stadium for the meet, which is the second stop on the Australian Athletics Tour.
Topics: athletics, sport, perth-6000
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