Sylvia Potts

It was Sylvia Potts’ misfortune to be remembered in New Zealand athletics history for one, or perhaps two, events, neither of which was a running triumph.

She was the athlete who fell when only a stride from the 1500m gold medal at the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games. She was also the runner chosen, because of that tragedy, to carry the Queen’s baton into the stadium at the opening of the 1974 Commonwealth Games.

Those two events, both newsworthy of course, take away the emphasis away from a high-class athletics career. Potts was a national cross-country, 400m and 800m champion, and represented New Zealand at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics as well as two Commonwealth Games.

At Mexico City, she reached the semis of the 800m, where her time of 2min 07.2s was not quick enough to earn her a spot in the final. She was 10th fastest overall.

If Potts had managed to remain on her feet a split-second longer in Edinburgh in 1970, she’d have become the first New Zealand woman to win an Olympic or Commonwealth Games gold medal on the track, an honour which eventually went to Anne Audain, the 1982 Commonwealth Games 3000m champion.

“I was selected for both the 800m and 1500m in Edinburgh,” Potts recalled. “Even though the 800m was my better distance, I felt I had an outside chance of a medal in the 1500m. Rita Ridley of England was the favourite, but the rest of the field were mainly 800m runners shifting up, like me.

“Rita made a big surge with 700m to go in the final and it took a couple of us a little while to realise we should go with her. I still felt good, but chasing her really stretched me. We caught her with 250m to go and were all in contention through the last bend. I put everything into it down the straight. We stuck together… really it was a gruelling last lap.

“With only a few metres to go, I felt I had a chance of gold, and I pressed harder. I don’t know if I was in the lead when I fell. Some people say I was. I do know that with only one or two steps remaining, I could win the gold. That’s what caused me to stumble.”

She said her body didn’t want to go as fast as she wanted it to and it was the extra effort, more than exhaustion, that caused the fall.

“If I’d been content with a bronze I wouldn’t have collapsed, but I was trying desperately hard to stay in front. It was ironic, because my philosophy had always been to run the best I could, rather than focus on placings, but that was one race I really wanted to win.

“As I sprawled forwards, my hands went over the line. That’s how close I was. I got up and ran over the line in 9th place. Ridley won after all.” Potts’ time was 4min 25.2s, ironically her fastest to that point.

“After the race, the other two New Zealanders in the race, Val Robinson and Ann Smith, picked me up and comforted me. I was pretty dazed. They took me to the tunnel, where [coach] Sam Johnson was waiting.

“I was lucky I had the 800m heats the next day. That gave me something else to focus on, so I never let myself get completely down, though of course it was a shattering experience.”

At dinner that evening, Potts sat next to Australian steeplechase king Kerry O’Brien, who’d fallen in his big race. “It must have been a time for falling – when I got home I won the national cross-country title, but only because Heather Matthews collapsed five metres from the line.”

Potts duly made the 800m final in Edinburgh, running 2min 07.4s in her heat. Amazingly, in the final the favourite, Sheila Kenny, fell heavily. Potts ended up 5th in 2min 09.7s. “I didn’t run as well as I could, but by then things had started to build up.”

She said carrying the Queen’s baton into the stadium in 1974 and presenting it to the Duke of Edinburgh was a special thrill. “I didn’t know about it till the morning of the opening ceremony when [Games organiser] Ron Scott told me, just after we’d had the team photo taken.”

Potts finished 8th in the 1500m final in Christchurch. She qualified with a heat time of 4min 19.6s and in the final ran 4min 23.1s.

“People often said I must regret what happened in Edinburgh, but you have to get on with your life, not dwell on things like that. I retired soon after Edinburgh, but came back for Christchurch and have very good memories of 1974.”

After her retirement, Potts and husband Alan remained closely involved with athletics, being especially encouraging of junior athletes. Alan was for a time convener of the national selectors. Sylvia was heavily involved with national age squads, and in 1990 was the New Zealand athletics team manager at the Auckland Commonwealth Games.

One of their sons, Richard, became a champion distance athlete and competed at the 1990 and 1994 Commonwealth Games.

In the 1998, Sylvia Potts was awarded an ONZM. She died in 1999, aged 55.

After her death, the major annual athletics meeting in Hawke’s Bay was named the Sylvia Potts Classic. It was renamed the Allan and Sylvia Potts Classic in 2015 after the death of Allan Potts.