Alfie Steedman

(16) RUNNER

At the age of 3, Sienna was given a DVD of the New York Ballet Company dancing. She was hooked, requesting the movie repeatedly and copying their graceful, joyful movements.

Her mother noticed how she loved to dance, enrolling her at Cameron Ballet Academy in Hobsonville at age 4.

At age of 10, Sienna auditioned for the NZ School of Dance and was chosen to go to Wellington seven times a year. Each of the following years she was re-accepted into the programme and three years later was chosen for the National Associate Programme, which starts at age 13. In the same year, she was selected by the Director for the Royal NZ Ballet Mentor Programme.

Sienna has also trained with Angela Gendall (Riverhead) and Nicci Theis McEwan (Herald Island).

Sienna started winning competitions at age 9, by 11 she had won 12 out of 12 categories. At 12, Sienna was selected to perform a very technical dance in the Royal NZ Ballet's Nutcracker at the Civic Theatre. At 13, she was awarded 'Best Dance of the Competition

All Ages' at the Caledonians. Aged 9 to 14, Sienna won over 130 first-place trophies in NZ dance competitions. In 2021 at a Summer Intensive, Sienna was awarded the top prize by the international teacher Miko Fogarty.

In 2021, Sienna was accepted into both the Australian and Queensland Ballet School Academy. She turned down those opportunities to accept a scholarship to the Princess Grace Academie, Monaco. Only 10 female students are chosen worldwide each year to train at this prestigious school. Sienna’s the youngest New Zealander to have ever been given a place at Princess Grace, and only the third to attend the school.

Sienna was put straight into the 2nd year at Academie Princess Grace. 25% of students each year are not invited back. Sienna was, being the only student in her class approved to advance. Sienna undertakes between 4 to 7 hours each day of physical training and also studies music for ballet, dance history and French.

Sienna is now in her second year at Academie Princess Grace. Her goal is to dance professionally for one of the top ballet companies in a strong classical and neo-classical repertoire. AIMES grant funds will go towards helping Sienna complete her training.

Sienna Going receives a North Harbour Club AIMES Emerging Talent Award, sponsored by Bellingham Wallace, and a cash grant of $7,500.

Westlake Boys student Alfie Steedman is a hugely promising runner, competing in track and field, distance and cross country running. While Alfie’s first sport was football, his success in running was early, winning cross country races at primary school and an Intermediate Northern Interzone Cross Country race.

It wasn’t until joining the running club at Westlake that he decided to pursue running on the back of impressive results.

In November 2020 he ran a 1500 metre personal best (PB) of 4 minutes 28 seconds. In December, he came 7th in the year 9 National Road Race at Tauranga.

2021 commenced with a 1500 metre PB of 4:26. Representing North Harbour at the North Island Track and Field Champs, Alfie won the 800 metres in a time of 2:07.

During 2021 his 1500 metre time went from 4:24 to 4:05, 3000 metre from 9:52 to 9:15, 800 metre from 2:07 to 2:01. Very competitive times for a 14-year-old, beating others who had constantly out run him.

At the start of 2022 he was back to training harder than ever, kicking the year off with a 9:00min 3000 metres. In March he ran 8:37 for the 3000 metres and 4:02 for the 1500 metres.

Alfie says he knew running was for him, football started to take a back seat.

He went on to have the best Cross Country and Track season of his life winning the NZ Cross Country, Australian Under 16 Cross Country and the NZ Junior 1500 and 3000 metre titles. Lowering his 3000 metre PB to 8:27.08, 1500 metre PB to 3:53.47, and 5000 metre PB to 14:35. All under the NZ Records!

At the NZ Track and Field Champs in Napier he ran 8:37 for 3000 metres, to finish second as a 15-year-old in the Under 18 Championship race.

In January this year Alfie came second in the U20 NZ national 3000 metres in 8:19.74. He then won the NZ U20 Mile champs in a time of 4:09.96, a new NZ record for a Kiwi U17 runner. In March he won both the 3000 and 1500 metres U18 titles.

“They say running is 90% mental and 10% physical, which is very true,” says Alfie. “Mentally committing to running allows you to physically commit with nothing holding you back, this means day in day out you do the work with no excuses.”

The grant funds will enable Alfie to compete at bigger events both inside and outside of NZ, such as the Australian Cross Country Champs, a Kenyan Development Camp at altitude, the ISF World Cross Country Champs in Europe and the IAAF World Under 20 Junior Track Champs in Lima, Peru.

Alfie’s long-term goal is to get a running scholarship to an American University.