Pontefract's Sienna and Julian produce medal runs in Northern Championships

Sienna judged her race perfectly in a competitive U15 girls 800 metres final.

She took the lead at the bell and managed to hold off a strong challenge from Isobel Beddow (Warriors Pentathlon Club) and Jessica Thake (Hallamshire Harriers) to win the gold medal in a time of two minutes: 13.72 seconds.

Isobel was second in 2:13.97 with Jessica third in 2:14.37.

This was Sienna's fifth successive gold medal in Northern Athletics Track and Field Championships, having won the U13 girls 800 metres titles in both the indoors and outdoors championships in 2025 and 2024.

Julian Rutkowski then produced his best ever performance for the Pontefract club.

He improved his personal best by more than three seconds to take the bronze medal in the U15 boys 800 metres, setting a club record of two minutes: 10.27 seconds.

It was Julian's first medal in a Northern Athletics Championships.

One week earlier, Sienna won the U15 girls 800 metres at meeting three in the South Yorkshire Indoor Series in 2:14.78.

Julian was a very close second in the U15 boys 800 metres in 2:17.08 and Isobel Gittins produced a personal best in the U15 girls 60 metres with 8.77 seconds.

At the Northern Athletics Cross Country Championship one day earlier at Pontefract Park, Sienna Lavine finished second out of 116 competitors in the U13 girls race.

Sienna was also runner-up in the Yorkshire Cross Country Championships one week before that at Lightwater Valley.

At the Northern Athletics Under 17 Indoor Championships at the EIS, Sheffield last month, Pontefract AC’s Yannick Stevenson just missed out on a medal when finishing fourth in the long jump with 5.84 metres.