Athletics: Petty, Rowe show class in 800m

TOO GOOD: Alex Rowe, of St Kevin's Amateur Athletics Club, Melbourne, powers to victory in the 800m senior men's race today in Hastings. PHOTO/Warren Buckland

Middle-distance runners Angie Petty and Alex Rowe lived up to their billing in Hastings today.

Rio Olympian Petty (nee Smit) clocked 2m 03.67s after good friend and arch-rival Katherine Marshall (nee Camp) strayed from her race plan to show the winner a clean pair of heels during the 19th edition of the annual Allan and Sylvia Potts Memorial Classic.

However, the 25-year-old from Christchurch seemed just as comfortable sitting behind until she shifted gears at the 200m mark from the finish line to overtake a straining Marshall who clocked 2:05.56.

The Hamiltonian, who turns 25 early next month, would have felt another rival, Katrina Anderson, of Auckland, breathing down her neck as the latter clocked 2:05.91 for third place on the podium.

It was a gob-smacking eighth Sylvia Potts Classic crown for Petty, who runs under the banner of University Canterbury Athletics Club, although her time was marginally slower today compared with last year's one of 2:03.43.

Rowe barely broke into a sweat in the cool, perfect 23C conditions at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park to finish almost 15m ahead of fellow travelling Australian stablemate Andre Waring.

The 24-year-old from Melbourne clocked 1:48.06 with Waring, 23, of Thomastown in Victoria, crossing the line in 1:52.03.

Samuel Bremer, of Hill City University Athletics Club in Dunedin, came in third at 1:52.08.

Equal 800m senior men's Australian record holder, Rowe, had Quin Hartley, of Palmerston North, pacing him in the Allan Potts Classic men's equivalent but his time today is an incremental build up in the season towards his PB of 1:44.40, which he set in July 2014.

The St Kevin's Amateur Athletic Club member missed out on making the Australia athletics team to the Rio Olympics by 0.27s last year.