Central Hawke’s Bay world No 1 Briana Stephenson steps up at Potts Classic athletics

Briana Stephenson during a heptathlon in Austria last year. Last weekend she broke through the 6000 points barrier, and is running at the Potts Classic in Hastings this weekend in the 60m hurdles.

The Allan and Sylvia Potts Classic athletics meeting in Hastings on Saturday will have a World No 1-ranked athlete, with Central Hawke’s Bay heptathlete Briana Stephenson’s personal-best winning performance in Australia last weekend.

The 26-year-old reigning national women’s heptathlon champion burst through the 6000-points mark for the first time to win the women’s heptathlon at the Queensland Combined Events Championships in Brisbane last weekend.

With a previous best of 5089 points, her new peak of 6098 points made her the world No 1 in the women’s heptathlon for 2026, because it was the first heptathlon of the year.

But it also elevated her to fifth place on the all-time New Zealand rankings, within clear sight of the second-placed 6135 posted in May 2012, with Joanne Henry’s record of 6278, set 34 years ago, also on the horizon.

Last weekend’s effort puts Stephenson right in medal contention for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on July 23-August 2, and would have been good enough for top 20 placings at both the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and last year’s World Championships in Tokyo.

Her weekend included a personal best in the shot put, and going 0.01s shy of her personal best in the 100m hurdles, in which she is also the reigning national champion.

On Saturday she will target a record in the 60m hurdles in the first national short-course athletics championships being staged as part of the Potts Classic

She’s also pacing the women’s 800m, in which several runners are after personal goals, including teenage twins Sarah and Lisa Hellyer, Rosa Twyford and Camryn Smart, daughter of Toni Hodgkinson, the holder of the national record since the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996.

Asked where she can improve in her bid for the women’s heptathlon record, Stephenson said: “The high jump, long jump and 800m were a little down on my best so I know I’ve got approximately 150 points up my sleeve.

“Then I hope to continue dropping my hurdles time over the season, and building consistency with throwing 40m-plus in the javelin.”

Other headliners at the Potts Classic, the first night in Athletics New Zealand’s Summer Circuit include sprinters Zoe Hobbs, Tiaan Whelpton and Lex Revell-Lewis, runners Sam Ruthe and Sam Tanner, and Hastings-raised World Championships shot put representative Nick Palmer.

The next generation from the national secondary schools championships held on the same track in December is also well represented, including sprinter Kendra Scally and Ruthe’s 15-year-old sister, Daisy.

Meeting director Richard Potts said numerous athletes will be chasing targets from personal bests to Commonwealth Games qualifying stands and World Youth Championships standards.

The Potts Classic will be held at the Mitre 10 Sports Park William Nelson Athletics Precinct, with field events starting at 1.30pm and track events at 4pm, with the men’s and women’s 800m races closing the night soon after 7.30pm.

Doug Laing is a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter based in Napier with more than 40 years’ experience reporting news and sports in the Hawke’s Bay region.