Sam Ruthe shatters school middle distance records at national championships in Hastings

Sunday, 7 December 2025

Sam Ruthe put an exclamation mark on a stellar year on the track with a record-breaking domination of the country’s best secondary school athletes in Hastings.

Having shattered both the national schools records for the 800m and 1500m earlier in the meet, Ruthe cruised to victory in a more sedate senior boys’ 1500m final on Sunday afternoon.

The 16-year-old from Tauranga Boys’ College was so far in front he eased down to a jog entering the home straight to generous applause, winning in 3min 49.47sec and beating Auckland Grammar School’s Caleb Wagener by six seconds.

Wagener was the only rival to go with Ruthe as he broke clear early in the final, the pair establishing a big margin within the first lap.

In Saturday’s heats Ruthe smashed Richard Potts’ 1500m national schools record - which stood since 1989 - by a phenomenal eight seconds in running 3:38.62 in perfect conditions.

Ruthe was 200m ahead when he crossed the finish line and almost 30 seconds clear of the rest of the field.

It also eclipsed the national under-20 and under-19 records held by Olympian Sam Tanner, and his own U18 and U17 marks.

In March, aged 15, Ruthe made history as the youngest athlete to run a sub-four minute mile when he clocked 3:58.35 alongside his training partner and pacemaker, Tanner.

Earlier on Sunday in the 800m it was a familiar story, too, as Ruthe lopped more than three seconds off the national schools record set by Commonwealth Games runner Brad Mathas in 2011.

Ruthe was three seconds clear of his main rival, Wellington College’s Joe Martin, in a time of 1:46.81 which also broke the U17, U18, U19 and U20 national marks.

Martin - the only schoolboy to beat Ruthe on the track in 2025, in Wellington in February over 800m - ran 1:49.74 which also went under Mathas’ record of 1:50.24.