Athletics: Olympic medallist drawcard for classic

FLASHBACK: Hamish Christensen (left) with Nick Willis and Richard Potts soon after the HB Sports Regional Park track opened in 2008. PHOTO/Mark Roberts, supplied

New Zealand Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis will compete at the Allan and Sylvia Potts Classic track-and-field meeting in Hastings next year.

The 32-year-old Hutt Valley-born athlete will feature at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park on January 16.

Event organiser Richard Potts says Willis is a major drawcard and Bay athletes are delighted he is supporting the province's marquee athletics meeting.

"Nick has been New Zealand's best-performed track athlete for close to a decade now and is widely respected on the international stage," says Potts of Willis, who will compete in the 800m event where he will be up against last year's winner, Brad Mathus.

"Brad has been the New Zealand 800m champion for the last four years, [so] both athletes will be chasing Hastings international athlete Hamish Christensen's personal best time of 1m 48.22s," he says.

It will be the first time Willis returns to the regional sports park since opening the all-weather track in October 2008.

"We are also getting great support from Sir Graeme Avery of Sileni Estates. Sir Graeme has vast experience in putting together major international athletic meetings and Sileni is our major sponsor again this year," says Potts.

The classic is in its 17th year. The event is named after the late Allan and Sylvia Potts.

Sylvia was a New Zealand champion 800m runner who competed at the 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 son Richard also is a former Commonwealth Games representative.

Willis and his brother Steve, a former athlete who coaches now, are the only brothers in New Zealand's history to have both broken four minutes for the mile.

Nick Willis married Sierra Boucher on September 30, 2007.

In 2012, they became parents to son Lachlan.

They live in Ann Arbor, Michigan.