A loophole has seen teen sensation Sam Ruthe meet the B performance standard for the Commonwealth Games, as he proved he can compete with the world’s best middle-distance runners in the biggest race of his life.
Ruthe finished seventh in the Sound Invite event in North Carolina, completing the race in 3m 52.46s, despite being unable to replicate his record-breaking mile in Boston two weeks ago.
The race was won by 1500m Olympic champion Cole Hocker, who broke the American record in 3m 45.94s, the second fastest indoor time in history.
Despite Ruthe’s overall time being shy of the B (3m 51.80s) or A (3m 50.40s) performance standard set by Athletics New Zealand for the mile, he managed to achieve the B standard another way.
His time at the 1500m split was 3m 34.66s, with the performance standard at that distance set at 3m 34.80s, which Athletics New Zealand has confirmed counts towards entry.
That means Ruthe can be nominated for one of Athletics New Zealand’s allocated 18 quota spots, although the final decision rests with the New Zealand Olympic Committee. The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow start on July 23 and end on August 2.
“He’s got an A and a B, which should see him be at least nominated to the Olympic Committee for selection,” his coach Craig Kirkwood said.
“Let’s keep our fingers crossed that that happens and hopefully he gets a shot at the Comm Games later in the year and who knows what’ll happen there.”
Earlier this month, the 16-year-old ran 3m 48.88s at the John Thomas Terrier Classic indoor meet at Boston University, rewriting the history books as the fastest-ever mile by a New Zealander and beating the record Sir John Walker set in Oslo in 1982.
Ruthe can hold his head high for his efforts in North Caroline as the race had the toughest competition he’d ever faced.
Along with Hocker was American outdoor champion Cooper Teare, former American road champion Vincent Ciattei and Mexican champion Eduardo Herrera – all fulltime athletes.
Fellow New Zealander Sam Tanner did not finish.
Hocker said he was excited at the chance to race against Ruthe.
“[He’s] just an absolute world class talent at 16,” Hocker said.
“At 16, I was training hard to run 4m 13s in the 1,600, so he’s leaps and bounds ahead of where I was at that time.
“That’s just the state of where the sport’s at right now. You can be running your best and a 10 year old will run a world record before you know it, so I’ve got to stay on my guard.”
Ruthe was third heading into the final lap but ran out of energy as he got trapped and was forced to run wide in the early stages of the race, meaning he was covering extra distance.
Kirkwood felt Ruthe would be better for the experience racing against an elite field.
“It was probably quite aggressive for those other guys who are way more experienced just getting off the line and finding their spot and they knew where they wanted to be and just took control, which probably took him a little bit by surprise,” Kirkwood said.
“It’s probably the first time he’s had to be in that situation. He moved up and down in the group and trying to find his spot, struggled to do that, but eventually got in.
“I think that took its toll on his end result and as you saw in the last kind of 200 metres, he really started to struggle. But overall it’s a great learning.”
It was his fourth time running a sub-four-minute mile, which he first achieved last year, becoming the youngest person to do so.
Ruthe is set to race in the 3000m race at Boston University next week, but his father, Ben Ruthe, told the Herald they will consider their options.
The Commonwealth Games was not on Sam Ruthe’s radar until his historic run in Boston, with the main focus heading into 2026 being the Under-20 World Championships, scheduled to take place days later in Oregon.
Last week, the Ruthes confirmed to Newstalk ZB that Sam Ruthe now intends to compete at this year’s Commonwealth Games, as well as the Under-20 World Championships, if he makes the selection.
Ben Francis is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.