Young Kiwi athlete, who has big British links, impresses spectators at New Zealand Champs by dead-heating with a double Olympian

Teenage running sensation Sam Ruthe brought the three-day New Zealand athletics championships in Dunedin to a thrilling climax on March 9 when he dead-heated for the 1500 metres title with 3:49 miler Sam Tanner, Gavin Riley reports.

Their shared time of 3:44.31 was slow for 24-year-old double Olympian Tanner and was more than three seconds adrift of 15-year-old Ruthe’s world age-best, recorded last month. But what made the race remarkable was the speed and tenacity the youngster showed down the finishing straight before drawing level with his fast-finishing rival right on the line.

Many spectators thought Ruthe had won, but after a lengthy deliberation the judges decided the pair could not be separated, a verdict that appeared to please both runners.

Ruthe, who turns 16 on April 12, has recorded a string of world age-bests this year: 3:41.25 for 1500m, 4:1.72 for the mile, and a remarkable 7:56.18 to win the New Zealand 3000m senior title.

Running with the self-confidence generated by these performances, he took an early lead in Dunedin and towed the field through a 64-second first lap. Tanner went to the front at about 500m and, with Ruthe a stride behind, passed 800m in 2:05 and the bell in 3:03.

Round the final bend Tanner unleashed a fierce finishing sprint, but his 56-second final 400m failed to drop the amazing Ruthe, who is revealing a potential considerably greater that that shown as teenagers by New Zealand’s long line of running greats – Jack Lovelock, Peter Snell, Murray Halberg, John Walker, Dick Quax, Rod Dixon and Nick Willis.

Ruthe has an impressive athletics pedigree. His father Ben and mother Jessica both won New Zealand middle-distance titles, his maternal grandfather Trevor Wright was a leading British distance runner in his heyday and won a silver medal in the1971 European marathon championship, and his maternal grandmother, as Rosemary Stirling, won the 800m at the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games.

Tanner and Ruthe (along with Olympic triathlon silver medallist Hayden Wilde) are members of a 40-strong training group coached in the North Island city of Tauranga by former marathon runner Craig Kirkwood. But no one is pushing the precocious Ruthe to perform beyond his years: his training load is a surprisingly light 40-50 kilometres a week, supplemented by swimming and biking.