It was the fastest mile ever run by an athlete under 18, and was the 11th fastest time ever recorded for an indoor mile. Sam eclipsed the New Zealand mile record of 3.49.08, set by John Walker in 1982.<\/p>\n
After the race, Sam told a television crew that he had just travelled 50 hours from New Zealand to attend the race, and was \u201cfeeling a bit heavy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I could run even faster but I\u2019m super stoked with that,\u201d he said, with a degree of humility that has become typical of Sam\u2019s reactions to his accomplishments.<\/p>\n
He has been billed as a \u201cphenomenon\u201d, a \u201csensation\u201d and a \u201cprodigy\u201d by media and the athletics world but he is \u201cnot aiming for records\u201d, he told the Guardian in February at the end of his US trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just lucky to be in fast races. If I can race people in a race that goes fast then my time ends up being quick. Running a fast time doesn\u2019t mean a lot to me as there are always a lot of people faster, even if they are a bit older.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam continues to shatter records. Alongside his international feats, he holds every under-20 middle-distance record in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s put himself in the top 20 or so men in the world for the mile distance, which is unheard of for someone so young,\u201d Craig Kirkwood, Sam\u2019s trainer, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to wrap your head around just how fast he ran, and how well he is going for a kid his age \u2013 it\u2019s remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\nSam Ruthe with his trainer, Craig Kirkwood.<\/span> Photograph: supplied<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhen asked what makes Sam so good, Kirkwood said there were \u201cjust so many things\u201d that needed to stack up.<\/p>\n
In Sam\u2019s case, those \u201cthings\u201d stack up neatly \u2013 not only does he come from an incredible line of talented runners, he is dedicated to the sport and has a supportive home life. Ruthe also lives in Tauranga, the same city as Kirkwood \u2013 who is one of the country\u2019s foremost athletics coaches.<\/p>\n
Sam\u2019s mother, Jess Ruthe, has taken out national titles in middle-distance running, competed at world cross-country championships and won the Auckland marathon six months after he was born. She was running up to 100km a week while seven months pregnant.<\/p>\n
Jess herself comes from stellar running stock. Her mother, Rosemary, won gold for Scotland in the 1970 Commonwealth games, while her father, Trevor, was a top marathon runner.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ben has also won the Auckland marathon and represented New Zealand at world cross-country championships. Ruthe\u2019s sister Daisy, 14, recently won her first under-20 3,000m New Zealand championship.<\/p>\n
\u2018Humble and incredibly disciplined\u2019<\/h2>\n Much is made of Sam\u2019s extraordinary genetics, but Ben also credits his sons\u2019 talent to an active childhood spent playing tag at the beach and hiking, a good diet and healthy sleep habits.<\/p>\n
Sam showed promise as a runner early, bounding ahead of his peers at primary school cross-country races. His parents delayed his training until he was almost 14 to ensure he could handle the pressure of becoming an athlete \u2013 a move that Ben believes has paid off.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s really humble and incredibly disciplined \u2026 he\u2019s just comfortable and he enjoys it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, Kirkwood\u2019s coaching has been transformative. He \u201ctakes the raw ingredients and launches it on to the international stage\u201d, Ben said.<\/p>\n
Kirkwood started training junior squads roughly 10 years ago. He takes a \u201ccautious\u201d approach to training: three sessions a week to slowly build up skills. While Sam \u201cshines pretty bright\u201d in the squad, his coach says the group environment is a big part of his success.<\/p>\n
Sam is a \u201cquick study\u201d, with an intuitive sense of the race and an ability to react to minute changes \u201calmost perfectly every time\u201d, Kirkwood said.<\/p>\nSam poses with his time of 3.58.35 in the mile distance at Mt Smart Stadium on in March 2025 in Auckland.<\/span> Photograph: Phil Walter\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWith the US event now behind him, Ruthe is looking towards selection for the Commonwealth Games and competing in the World Junior champs in Oregon in August \u2013 but he is already tempering expectations, suggesting his school demands may slow down his running pace.<\/p>\n
Whether he continues his extraordinary streak or not at those events, the world will be watching and they can sure of one thing: Sam will be thoroughly enjoying himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m racing I go into a space where my mind goes blank and I feel my body takes over \u2026 those brief moments are ones that I really enjoy as it feels like I\u2019m outside my own body,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the teenage New Zealand runner, Sam Ruthe, took to Boston University\u2019s famous indoor track in January, he told his father he was aiming to run a 3.48-minute mile. The 16-year-old had already stunned the athletics world in 2025, when he became the youngest person ever to break the four-minute mile barrier \u2013 aged 15 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6802],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-231752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athetics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}