Athletics: It'll be track-and-field heaven in HB

Shot putters Jacko Gill, Valerie Adams and Tom Walsh, pole vaulter Eliza McCartney, and runner Angie Petty may all compete in Hastings in January. Photo/HB Today

Because Athletics New Zealand has shuffled its pack of cards on its marquee annual meetings early next year Hastings has mutated into the last-chance saloon for anyone aspiring to represent the country at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

That means elite athletes will converge at the annual Allan and Sylvia Potts Memorial Classic on January 27 for the last roll of the dice to take their marks at Gold Coast, Australia.

Potts Classic meeting director Richard Potts says Olympians - such as pole vaulter Eliza McCartney, shot putters Valerie Adams, Tom Walsh and Jacko Gill, 800m runner Angie Petty, and 100m sprinter Joseph Miller - are likely to be among a long list of 100 others to impress the selectors at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park.

"You've always got a chance to qualify for the games with the qualifying times and all that but there will only be a limited number of places to make the [New Zealand] team," says Potts, stressing athletes will need dispensation if they don't compete at the trials.

"All those athletes should be competing because part of the games' selection policy is that it's compulsory anyway."

Potts says there are about 100 competitors trying to make the cut for 19 places.

"That means all those athletes haven't qualified but are close to it so quite a few of those 100 could break the standard."

While many will miss the cut, having large fields will only improve the times, heights and distances on tracks, pits, mats and fields to keep spectators entertained.

The first of the trilogy of meetings, doubling as games trials, will be at the Capital Classic in Wellington on January 19. The second will follow at the Cooks Classic in Whanganui on January 21.

Traditionally, the proceedings begin at the Potts Classic, snake their way to the Cooks Classic and then conclude at the Capital Classic.

"We were asked if we wanted to hold all the three meetings but they later decided to have three separate meetings," Pott says, revealing that request was tabled almost 18 months ago.

However, six months ago Athletics New Zealand decided to spread the meetings around.

The Potts Classic, which runs under the banner of the Hastings Athletics Club, will host 11 of the 28 events to feature at the trials.

They include the men and women's shot put, women's hammer, women's 800m, women's 3000m steeplechase, men's 5000m, men's 100m, women's 100m, women's 400m, and men and women's pole vault.

Potts says the entire programme will be stretched to about 150 minutes to enable track athletes to have at least an hour-long breather before their finals races after heats.

"In that way we can also show off shot put, pole vault and the other events as well."

He and his army of volunteers are eager to stage a humming meeting for spectators.

"We've approached most of our sponsors and we're looking at bringing maybe one or two overseas athletes again to make it international as well."

Other non-trial events will be confirmed later in the year.

The event is named after the late Allan and Sylvia Potts. Sylvia was an NZ 800m champion runner who competed at Olympic and Commonwealth Games, narrowly missing the Commonwealth gold medal in 1970 when she fell just short of the finish line.

Husband Allan was a New Zealand track coach and also mentored Sylvia. She lost her battle with cancer in August 1999 and he in May 2014, thus evolving from a Sylvia Potts Classic to both names.

Richard Potts says a percentage of the gate takings will again be donated to Cancer Society Hawke's Bay.