Athletics: Potts always remembered

Former top New Zealand middle-distance runner and leading athletics administrator and coach Sylvia Potts died in Hastings on Tuesday night aged 55.

Potts learned in January that she had cancer.

She represented New Zealand at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, and the 1970 and 1974 Commonwealth Games.

And she will forever be remembered for her fall metres from the line when leading the 1970 Commonwealth Games 1500m final in Edinburgh.

"I was simply tired and exhausted and could not have gone any faster," she said at the time.

Potts was a New Zealand team coach at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and athletics team manager at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland when New Zealand had their biggest team.

Athletics New Zealand chairman Graham Avery said the sport had lost a great servant.

"The sport will always recognise her major contribution as a competitor, coach and administrator," he said.

Potts' contribution to athletics was recognised last year when she received both a New Zealand Order of Merit and an International Amateur Athletics Federation award recognising the contribution made by women administrators.

Working with junior runners was her passion, her husband, Allan Potts said. The couple's work saw the Hastings Athletic Club produce several prominent middle-distance runners, including Hamish Christensen, Phil Costley and their son, national 10,000m champion Richard Potts, who competed at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in the 5000m. - NZPA