Richard Potts, son of the late Allan Potts and Sylvia Potts, says it's tough to keep athletes in the sport once they leave school. Photo / File
Richard Potts, son of the late Allan Potts and Sylvia Potts, says it's tough to keep athletes in the sport once they leave school. Photo / File
Hastings' two-time Commonwealth Games runner Richard Potts says it's tough to keep athletes in the sport once they leave school. The son of athletics legends Allan and Sylvia Potts chats to Mark Story ahead of the weekend's Allan and Sylvia Potts Classic.
What was the spark for the original PottsClassic? The initial spark came when Sylvia passed away in 1999 from cancer and a group of close officials and coaches to Sylvia and Allan approached Allan to hold a memorial competition in Sylvia's name. It has increased in popularity from year to year, this is the 19th year holding this meeting with a name change to include Allan when he passed away with cancer in 2015. With both mum and dad passing away with cancer it's why the Hawke's Bay Cancer Society has benefited from all of the gold coins donated at the gate over the years.
Where do you rate it on the national athletics calendar? It sits just below nationals along with the other classic meetings around the country. We try to keep the number of events on show low so we can have good numbers of athletes to compete against each other.
What are your expected highlights for this year's meet? The men's and women's pole vault will be the events to watch this year with Olympian Liz Parnov from Australia in the women's competing against a rising New Zealand star Olivia McTaggart. In the men's we have a guest vaulter from Germany who has jumped 5.75 metres. He will be up against New Zealand five-time champion Nick Southgate along with young up-and-coming Australian pole vaulter Declan Carruthers. Plus the world shot put champion Tom Walsh will be here and the women's 800m will always be a feature event at the end of the programme.
How would you sum up the current strength of our regional athletics scene?" From high school age down I think the sport here is strong. We may not have the high numbers like in other big regions but we do have some very good athletes here at national and international level. The hardest thing is keeping them in the sport once they leave school or the Hawke's Bay area.
Your mother's heartbreaking fall just before the finish line while leading the 1500m final at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh has become part of this country's sporting folklore. Does it irk at all that despite all her achievements, this moment is still forefront? No, not really. She had many other successes during her career. It was just one of those things that probably made her more famous than if she had won.
