The New Zealand teenager, who has had an extraordinary rise in athletics, has impressed over multiple distances this season
Sam Ruthe has beaten Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s world age-15 best over 1500m, knocking over a second off the mark at the Sir Graeme Douglas International in Auckland (February 9).
The New Zealand teenager clocked 3:41.25 on home soil, which is quicker than the 3:42.44 Ingebrigtsen recorded at the Bislett Games in 2016.
Ruthe, who doesn’t turn 16 until April 12, is also in contention to become the youngest person in history to break the four-minute barrier in the mile.
The 15-year-old clocked 4:01.72 over the distance in Whanganui last month and is planning on running another mile towards the end of March.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen
The youngest athlete to break the four-minute-mile barrier is actually Ingebrigtsen, who achieved the feat at 16 years and 250 days.
Ruthe doesn’t want to be distracted by the comparisons between him and the double Olympic champion, instead focusing on his path in the sport.
“I wasn’t exactly targeting that [Ingebrigtsen’s best],” Ruthe told New Zealand’s RNZ. “I just went into the race hoping to do the best I could in terms of placing and it was a bonus to get his record – I had it in the back of my mind.
“I was quite lucky they both moved out quite wide, so I could find the gap. It felt real, real nice having that gap open up. I go into these races, parking in behind the other people and hoping they pull me through, and this race did exactly that.
“I couldn’t even imagine all this happening before the season, so much fun.”
Ruthe, who began running competitively when he was 13, sprang to national prominence last November when he won a 3000m event in Auckland in 8:09.68, a time the 15-year-old eclipsed in Melbourne in December with 8:06.56.
Since then, Ruthe has reduced his 3000m best to 7:56.18, which is also a world age-15 best over the distance.
Rosemary Stirling (Getty)
His maternal grandfather is former English distance-running great Trevor Wright, who had a best of 2:12:49 in the marathon and secured silver over 26.2 miles at the 1971 European Championships.
The teenager’s maternal grandmother also became 800m champion on home soil at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, under her maiden name of Rosemary Stirling.
Ruthe’s father Ben is a former New Zealand champion – with 800m and 1500m personal bests of 1:48.95 and 3:41.22 respectively – while his mother Jessica has secured multiple national titles from the 1500m to 10,000m.
The younger Ruthe is coached by Craig Kirkwood and trains alongside the likes of double Olympian Sam Tanner and two-time Olympic triathlon medallist Hayden Wilde.
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