Athletics: Aussies will add pizazz to Potts Classic

Coach Jeremy McColl's stable of pole vaulters will relish the challenge from their Australian counterparts. Photos/Photosport

If anyone has doubts that pole vaulting is the saxophone of athletics, then the annual Allan & Sylvia Potts Memorial Classic in Hastings next month will fix that.

Australians Elizabeth Parnov and Declan Carruthers are in the mix for pole vaulting glory when the meeting is staged at the HB Regional Sports Park on Saturday, January 27.

The men will compete from 2.30pm and the women from 5pm as some athletes will be in the hunt for qualifying times, distances and heights in myriad events with the XXI Gold Coast Commonwealth Games beckoning in April.

However, the Perth pair, who intend to make the Gold Coast cut for Australia in February, will not be part of the week-long Vaulters in the Bay that top New Zealand coach Jeremy McColl is conducting leading into the classic.

"We only have the Aussie pole vaulters coming this time, and we're hoping a German male vaulter will, too," says meeting director Richard Potts, revealing the proximity of the games trials in Australia means many athletes there won't come here.

Potts says Parnov will be attempting to keep up with Rio bronze medallist Eliza McCartney, while national schools' champion, Olivia McTaggart, also of Auckland, will be nipping at the Aussie's heels.

Russia-born Parnov, 23, and Carruthers, 20, are pedigree athletes.

She is a four-time national champion, the first time just before she turned 16, and has represented Australia at the 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games.

2012 London Olympian Parnov collected silver medals in the under-18 (Lille 2011) and under-20 (Barcelona 2012) world championships as well as the Youth Olympic Games (Singapore 2010).

She has a PB of 4.51m set this season. Her father, Alex Parnov, trains her and Carruthers.

Carruthers, who has PB of 5.40m and a season best of 5.35m, represented his country at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing and, akin to Parnov, is a University of Western Australia club member.

Nick Southgate, of Auckland, has a PB of 5.47m.

Potts is hopeful Classic 800m queen Angie Petty, of Christchurch, will return next month.

"At the moment, she's committed to running a bit longer, so I've spoken with her and she won't be quite ready for 800m at this stage," he says of the Olympian, but elite shot putter Tom Walsh and budding talent Nick Palmer, of Hastings, will compete.

"When you've got the world champion turning up at your doorstep for Commonwealth trials, you know you're going to get a good put out of him," he says of Walsh, but adds Jacko Gill's health scare has ruled him out.

Potts says fans again can make a gold-coin donation at the meeting when the gates open at the earlier 1pm time due to the games trials. Proceeds will go to the Cancer Society of Hawke's Bay.