WTW: 15-year-old Sam Ruthe stuns a big-time pro down under, Jakob gets his triple & much more

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Got a tip, question, or comment? Please call us at 844-LETSRUN (538-7786), email us, or post in our forum.

Did you catch this LRC coverage from last week?

• The Shelby Houlihan Interview: Lingering Questions from Doping Case, How She Trained for the Last 4 Years, & Her Return to the Sport
• How Hobbs Kessler Won Two US Titles Fueled by Rice Krispies Treats and Country Time Lemonade
• Breaking Down 2025 NCAA Indoor Entries — The Hardest Meet to Qualify for in NCAA History

Prefer podcasts? We break down the Week in Running in the LetsRun.com Track Talk podcast out today.

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World, meet Sam Ruthe, the 15-year-old sensation from New Zealand

As I’ve hinted at before, the men’s 1500 is certainly reminding me of men’s tennis 20 years ago. When Roger Federer came along, many thought, “We’ll never see a player like this again.” And then four years after Federer became #1, Rafael Nadal was the world #1 and three years after that, Novak Djokovic was the #1.

Back in 2017, when Jakob Ingebrigtsen became the youngest person to break 4:00 in the mile at age 16, many thought, “We won’t see a teen prodigy like this again for a long time—who else comes from a running family where you’re raised to be a champion?”

Yet just six years after Ingebrigtsen’s sub-4 mile, Aussie Cam Myers broke Ingebrigtsen’s age-16 1500 and mile records in 2023 with times of 3:38.02 and 3:55.44, respectively. That same year, Dutchman Niels Laros, at age 18, ran 3:48.93 to break 3:50 in the mile.

But step aside Jakob, Niels, and Cam. There now is a Kiwi who has broken the equivalent of 4:00 in the mile at age 15.

2025 has been unreal for 15-year-old Sam Ruthe of New Zealand. Already this year, he’s run the fastest times ever recorded by a 15-year-old in the 1500 (3:41.25, beating Ingebrigtsen’s 3:42.44), mile (4:01.72), and 3000 (7:56.18).

On Sunday, his unreal 2025 picked up even more steam as he came from behind and tied training partner Sam Tanner, who has a 3:31 1500 pb and ran 3:51.85 in the mile on February 21, for the New Zealand 1500 title in 3:44.31. After a 64-second first 400, we timed Ruthe unofficially for his last 800 in 1:53.66, with a 54.82 last lap.

Race Video

To say that Ruthe comes from a running family would be an understatement. Grant Chapman of rnz.co.nz has many of the details in this great article: ‘So, so impressive’ – Teenage running prodigy Sam Ruthe sets course for athletics stardom.

• His maternal grandfather, Trevor Wright, ran 2:12:29 in the marathon after setting a world record for fastest marathon debut (2:13:27 in 1971?), but his wife was way more accomplished than him.
• Rosemary Wright (née Stirling), Sam’s maternal grandmother, was born in New Zealand but won Commonwealth 800m gold in 1970 for Scotland. She might have been an Olympic 800m champion, almost certainly a medallist, had better drug testing existed as she ran her pb of 2:00.15 in the 1972 Olympic final. That only placed her 7th as 5 of the 6 ahead of her were Eastern Europeans. In the semifinals, Wright edged 1968 Olympic champion Madeline Manning of the US by .03 to keep her out of the final.
• Sam’s mom, Jessica Ruthe (née Wright), amassed PBs of 9:08 for 3000, 15:53 for 5000, 32:37 for 10,000, and 73:17/2:39:19 for the half and full marathons. She competed at World Cross Country four times, twice finishing in the top 50, including a 24th-place showing in 2006.
• His father Ben Ruthe “was a local Wellington legend during his junior years, breaking national records over 800 metres and 1000 metres” who two-time Olympic medalist Nick Willis looked up to. He was also 4th in the world in the junior race at the World Mountain Champs, ran 1:48 for 800 and 3:41 for 1500 (and 65:16 for the half and 2:22:11 in the marathon). In 2005, he ran at World XC (104th in the short race). Now at age 44, he’s still fit enough that he was able to pace Ruthe for the first 1k of the 3000m national title that Sam won on February 1.

If you are wondering if Sam, who turns 16 on April 12, looks super mature for his age or is training at some super level, the answer is no and no.

Photo via Athletics New Zealand (Ruthe is on the left)

He’s coached by Craig Kirkwood, who has also guided Sam Tanner to two Olympics, and Kirkwood was interviewed on New Zealand radio the day after the race.

Kirkwood said he’s “extremely careful” with Ruthe’s training, admitting, “It would be really easy to get carried away…. What he does in racing kind of far exceeds where he is in training, but that’s just what it is.”

Kirkwood called Ruthe an “extremely talented young man” whom he praised for having an “amazing racing brain”, being “very astute” and “very humble.”

Next up for Ruthe? He’s going to try to become the first 15-year-old to break 4:00 in the mile on March 19 with Tanner agreeing to serve as his rabbit. Looking ahead, they’d like to compete at the Commonwealth Games next year — which are in Scotland by the way, so Grandma would be proud — and the Olympics in 2028.

FYI Kirkwood said Tanner has been in a heavy training block.

Kirkwood didn’t get into the specifics of Ruthe’s training in the radio interview, but Nick Willis is familiar with it.

“Sam hasn’t even tapped into the real training that he’s capable of. That’s the most exciting thing,” said Nick Willis, “I don’t have any trepidation or fear, only excitement.”

More: MB: Wild 1500 in NZ: 15-yr old Sam Ruthe ties 3:31 man Sam Tanner in DEAD HEAT at Kiwi nationals 
*‘So, so impressive’ – Teenage running prodigy Sam Ruthe sets course for athletics stardom.
*Sam Tanner, Sam Ruthe tie in dramatic 1500m final in Dunedin

Want to know more about Niels Laros? He appeared on our podcast in 2023: Meet Niels Laros, The 18-Year-Old Dutch Sensation Who Has Run 1:45.8 for 800m and 13:23 for 5,000m.

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Dillon Mitchell breaks US freshman HS 100m record with 10.35

Ruthe wasn’t the only teen to make waves last week.

There was some fast sprinting in the Texas high school ranks as well. While windy (+2.6), senior Brayden Williams, who will run track for Georgia next year, ran the earliest sub-10 in US HS history as he clocked 9.99 to win the Texas A&M Bluebonnet Invitational in College Station. Williams had plenty of time to celebrate becoming the 4th US HSer to break 10.00 in any conditions.

Brayden Williams via Travismillerx13

Race video: https://x.com/travismillerx13/status/1898471389058789588 (It appears the X embed feature is temporarily down)

The third placer in the race may have had an even bigger weekend. High school freshman Dillon Mitchell ran 10.29 for third in the final a day after running a wind-legal US freshman record of 10.35 (+1.8) in the prelims. Mitchell, a 5’5″ football prospect, says he picked up 10 football scholarship offers within 90 minutes of his race. And the offers were from big-time football schools like Georgia, Texas A&M, etc.

Race video of Mitchell’s 10.35: https://x.com/milesplit/status/1898360598552797224 (It appears the X embed feature is temporarily down)

What’s crazy is Mitchell played JV football this year — actually even in Texas nowadays they call it sub-varsity. He racked up 1,400 all-purpose yards as CE King went 10-0. If you watch his highlight tape, which is absolutely crazy and worth a watch, you’d probably think he racked up 1,400 yards per game as he looks like he’s out of a video game. How he didn’t crack the varsity for a 5-5 team is hard to fathom.

More: *2028 ATH Dillon Mitchell had a wild Saturday: “I got 10 offers in about 90 minutes”
*Football pundits talk about Mitchell and show football highlights on YouTube

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Jakob Ingebrigtsen gets his triple double

For the third straight European indoors, Jakob Ingebrigtsen won double gold, capturing the 1500 and 3000. He won both races in very similar fashion. His last 1k in the 1500 was 2:19.2 as he won in 3:36.56. In the 3000, his last 1k was 2:19.0 as he won in 7:48.38 after a 3:34.4 final 1500.

Next up for Ingebrigtsen appears to be World Indoors. He has already booked tickets to China, and according to his brother Filip, if Jakob does run, he plans on doubling which is interesting as he technically doesn’t have the 3000 qualifying time.

Filip was amazed by how good Jakob has been performing of late saying in another interview, “It’s strange. He’s actually quite loaded with training. If he feels this good now, I’m dreading what he’ll come up with this summer.”

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Gebreselama gets ready for Grand Slam Track with course record in Lisbon as Abeba Aregawi’s comeback picks up steam

At the EDP Lisbon Half Marathon on Sunday, Ethiopia’s Tsigie Gebreselama, the 2023 World XC silver medallist and 2024 Pre Classic 5000 winner (14:18 pb), was the big winner as she won by nearly two minutes in a personal best and course record time of 1:04:21 (previous pb of 65:14). In the process, she showed she’ll be ready to roll in the 3k/5k group at the first Grand Slam Track meet in Jamaica, which starts in 25 days. The second placer was marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetich, who ran 66:20 — slower than either of the halves she ran in her record run in Chicago.

Seven weeks out from the London Marathon, Ruth Chepngetich finishes 2nd in the Lisbon Half. Her time of 66:20 was slower than her first half during her marathon WR in Chicago in October (64:16).

It was also slower than her second half in Chicago (65:40). https://t.co/ng7we37m9i

— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) March 9, 2025

If you think that means Chepngetich is screwed for the London Marathon, realize Chepngetich still has 48 days until London. A lot can change in that time frame. Just look at Gebreselama. 29 days before her run in Lisbon, she only ran 8:33 for 5th at Millrose and an 8:33 3k is worth over 68 minutes in the half marathon.

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The third placer in the women’s race was a big name. Sweden’s Abeba Aregawi, the 2013 world 1500 champ, is back after a near decade-long retirement and ran a Swedish record of 66:36 in her half marathon debut. After testing positive for meldonium (which was legal until 2016) in early 2016, Aregawi was eventually cleared as there was no proof she took it in 2016. But she didn’t compete in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2023 as she moved back to her native Ethiopia and started a family. She and her Ethiopian-Swedish husband Henok Weldegebriel divorced and she married Yemane Tsegay — the former Ottawa, Fukuoka, and Rotterdam Marathon champ and 2015 World championship silver medallist in the marathon (2:04:48 pb) — and had four kids. In her first race back last year, she ran 31:05 for 10k on the roads in June — the fastest time ever recorded by a Swede.*

MB: Sweden’s Abeba Aregawi, former 1500 world champ, runs 1:06.36 HM after 9-year retirement

*Since Aregawi isn’t running for a proper Swedish club, it’s was initially reported that neither her 10k or half marathon would count as a Swedish record. We’ve found a new article that says the half marathon will count as she’s part of a Swedish club once again. It also says she plans to run 5000-marathon now and it’s a full on comeback. She hopes to run at Worlds.

In the men’s race, Djibouti’s Abdi Waiss was the shock winner in a massive pb of 59:44. The 28-year-old Waiss, who was the world junior silver medallist in the 1500 in Eugene in 2014 and sports a 3:34.55 1500 pb from 2016 and a 13:02.38 5000 pb from 2024, came into the race with a 64:37 pb.

Israel’s Gashau Ayale, an Ethiopian-born Jew who has been in Israel since he was 13, made history by becoming the first Israeli to break 60:00, finishing 5th in 59:59. He now holds the Israeli records at 10,000 (27:49.88), half and marathon (2:04:53).

More: Lisbon Half Marathon: Tsigie Gebreselama Shatters Course Record,Chepngetich and Kipkemei second
*MB: Sweden’s Abeba Aregawi, former 1500 world champ, runs 1:06.36 HM after 9 year retirement

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US Olympians To Receive $200,000…. Well Not Really Eventually

Last week, it was announced that thanks to a $100 million donation by Ross Stevens, all US Olympians and Paralympians who make less than $1 million will receive $200,000.

Well—sort of.

The way they will be paid is quite unusual. They will receive $100,000 when they turn 45 or 20 years after they competed (whichever comes later) and then their heirs will receive $100,000 when they die. Currently the program is set to begin with next year’s Winter Olympics in Italy and is funded through the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane with the aim to go even longer than that.

Mr. Stevens is free to give his money however he wants (and he pulled back a $100 million donation to University of Pennsylvania in response to its response to antisemitism on campus), but this seems like a crazy way to do it. But the numbers are bigger and the gift will last longer.

If you are a struggling Olympic athlete in some obscure sport chasing your dream, you don’t need money in 20 years or 60 years, you need it now. What if he just gave $40,000 to every Olympian making less than $500,000?

$40k may sound like a lot less than $200k, but $100,000 in 20 years at a 5% discount rate is worth $37.7k now and $100,000 in 60 years at a 5% discount rate is only worth 5.5k.

More: MB: US Olympians will now receive $200k each thanks to a $100 million donation by Ross Stevens

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Sheila Chepkirui wins Nagoya as American Natosha Rogers runs a big PB

2024 TCS New York City Marathon champ Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya picked up her second straight marathon win in Nagoya over the weekend as she won in a modest 2:20:40 (70:37-70:03). Japan’s Sayaka Sato, 30, took second in a 2:20:59 pb (previous pb of 2:22:13).

American Natosha Rogers took a nice step forward in Nagoya as she lowered her marathon pb by more than 10 minutes from 2:34:51 at the Olympic Trials to 2:23:51 in Nagoya, which placed her 7th. She ran 71:19 for her first half and 72:32 for her second.

We don’t yet have confirmation that Nagoya paid out $250,000 (the richest prize in marathoning) for first this year like it has in recent years. The 2025 info sheet doesn’t list the first place prize like the 2024 info sheet did.

*Nagoya results with splits
*MB: Congrats Natosha Rogers – 2:23:51 pb in Nagoya!!!

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