The 16-year-old clocks 1:42.27 to finish runner-up to Donavan Brazier’s 1:42.16 in the US Champs in Eugene

With perhaps the most stunning running performance in the world this the year, Cooper Lutkenhaus evoked memories of Jim Ryun’s teenage athletics exploits from half a century ago.

Born on December 19 in 2008, Lutkenhaus is just 16 years and seven months old. But despite his limited years, he stormed to a time of 1:42.27 in the 800m final at the US Championships at Hayward Field on Sunday (Aug 3).

Only one man, Donavan Brazier, managed to beat him, with the 28-year-old former world champion clocking 1:42.16 after a brilliant comeback from several years out with Achilles problems. In third, defending US champion Bryce Hoppel ran 1:42.49.

Such is Lutkenhaus’s improvement, he started this year with a PB of 1:47.58, but he has demolished Michael Granville’s 29-year-old US high school record of 1:46.45 by more than four seconds.

Remarkably, Lutkenhaus still has two years at high school as well.

For sheer excitement and quality, the trials race on Sunday for the World Championships in Tokyo was on a par with US trials races such as the 1984 event where Earl Jones front-ran a US record of 1:43.74 narrowly ahead of Johnny Gray and John Marshall as big hitters like James Robinson and Don Paige failed to make the cut for the LA Olympics that year.

Yet most people post-race were instead talking about the parallels with another athlete from yesteryear, the multiple world record-holder in the late 1960s, Ryun.

Ryun made his first Olympic team in 1964 aged 17 and the following year he beat reigning Olympic 800m and 1500m champion Peter Snell of New Zealand over the mile in 3:55.3 – a time that stood as a high school record for 36 years.

Ryun also set world records for half-mile (1:44.9) and the mile (3:51.3) aged 19 in 1966.

Of course, Ryun aside, there have been other notable teenage talents in men’s middle-distance running such as Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who became the world’s youngest sub-four-minute miler in 2017 aged 16 with 3:58.07 while, more recently, Cameron Myers of Australia ran 3:55.44 aged 16 in 2023.

When it comes to global records, Lutkenhaus’s 1:42.27 sliced more than three seconds off his own age 16 world record of 1:45.45, which was set in June.

His time was also faster than Ethiopian Mohammed Aman’s age 17 world record of 1:43.37, not to mention Emmanual Wanyonyi’s age 18 record of 1:43.27.

“I knew I could PR, I knew I could run faster than 1:45,” Lutkenhaus said on Sunday. “But actually going out there and doing it, it was definitely a shock.”

In the race itself, Lutkenhaus held off the leader Josh Hoey’s 49.29 first lap pace and instead sat in seventh in 50.66. He was still out of contention with 200m to go but produced a sizzling final 150m to snatch second place.

He added that the US Champs was all about “really seizing the moment, racing the best guys in America, globally. Just going out there having fun and trying to see what I can do against the best.”

So what might Lutkenhaus achieve in future? Teenage talents are renowned for burning out, but Ryun went to three Olympics and was beaten into second by the brilliant Kip Keino at the altitude Games of Mexico in 1968 before unluckily falling in his heat in Munich 1972. World records at 880 yards and the mile aside, some believe his greatest run was his 3:33.1 world 1500m record in 1967.

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Ingebrigtsen, Wanyonyi and Aman all went on to win global titles too. Tokyo 2025 might come too soon for Lutkenhaus to make the podium at a global championships. (Has the 16-year-old, in fact, even travelled outside the United States before?) But when it comes to his potential at the forthcoming World Championships, it seems anything is possible after his remarkable US Champs performance.