The Tauranga runner obliterated records at the national secondary schools championships recently, but his times were not just good for a schoolboy - they were world-leading, Kayla Hodge reports.
Picture this.
You are 16, and your life revolves around school, homework, spending time with your mates and maybe a part-time job after school.
Then there is Sam Ruthe, who juggles life as a normal teenager while breaking records as a distance runner.
Earlier this year, aged 15, he became the youngest person to go under 4min in the mile, and he won the New Zealand senior men’s 3000m title at the Potts Classic, becoming the youngest national men’s champion in history.
He then blitzed home in 3min 41.25sec in the 1500m at the Sir Graeme Douglas International meet, surpassing Norwegian Olympic champion and world record holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s world-best time for a 15-year-old of 3min 42.44sec from 2016.
Ruthe treated Dunedin spectators to something special at the national championships at the Caledonian in March.
He finished the 1500m in 3min 44.31sec, the exact same time as Olympian Sam Tanner, for the pair to be crowned joint champions.
Later that month, Ruthe — with Tanner pacing him — became the youngest person in the world to go under the 4min mark in the mile, clocking 3min 58.35sec.
For context, Commonwealth Games champion Dick Tayler, who lives in Waikouaiti, held the world record for a 15-year-old for the mile — run on a grass track — with 4min 18.06sec in the 1960s.
At the national secondary schools championships recently, Ruthe, now 16, shattered the senior boys 1500m record in 3min 38.62sec in the heats.
He surpassed the previous record — held by former Commonwealth Games runner Richard Potts since 1989 — by 8sec. It also eclipsed the national under-20 and under-19 records held by Tanner, and Ruthe’s own under-18 and under-17 marks.
"I was really, really surprised because I thought I was just going to beat it by a couple of seconds, like two seconds or something," Ruthe told RNZ.
"I was just like, I’ll head out a bit fast and get some extra room just in case I don’t feel too good towards the last couple of laps, and I just kept going because I felt so good."
Ruthe, whose parents were national runners and whose grandparents were Olympians, followed up by winning the 800m title in 1min 46.81sec.
His 800m and 1500m times would have won every Olympic gold medal in both distances until the mid-1950s, his 1500m time was faster than Olympic-winning performances by John Walker (1976), Fermin Cacho (1992) and Matthew Centrowitz (2016), and his 800m would have earned gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
Tayler raved about Ruthe and walked away inspired after speaking to the teenager in Dunedin earlier this year.
"He’s in another league and it’s wonderful for New Zealand athletics that we’ve got guys like him, who’ve come along and set a very high benchmark," Tayler said.
"It’s unreal, the times he’s doing."
Tayler recalled international athletes coming to New Zealand in the 1960s for tougher competition and expected Ruthe’s recent success could pique some interest.
"It’s good for the track and field because we’ve been so good in the field events — and we still want to maintain that — but when you get on the track, and middle distance and distance ... if we can get some new blood coming along, I think it’s absolutely fantastic."
Former national runner Paul Allison agreed and called Ruthe’s times "borderline absurd".
Allison, who lives in Central Otago, recognised New Zealand produced special talent, but there was something different about Ruthe.
"When a teenager is already breaking the glass ceiling on the world stage, you know you’re looking at something truly rare," Allison said.
"We’re not talking about potential any more. We’re talking about performances that already sit in Olympic and Diamond League territory.
"When a 16-year-old is doing that, the normal rules just stop applying.
"Becoming the youngest person in history to break 4min for the mile — before you’re old enough to drive — is a global milestone, not a junior one."
Ruthe now has his eye on becoming the fastest 16-year-old in the 1500m and will travel to New York early next year for indoor competitions.
And what does Ruthe think about on the track?
"I don’t think about much at all, to be honest — it’s just all empty brain." — Additional reporting RNZ
