16-Year-Old Sets Impressive New World Record With Historic Sub-4 Minute Mile
Your days of running a timed mile may have ended after leaving grade school, but you likely remember just how brutal it felt. A 6- or 7-minute mile was considered solid. Every so often, a gifted runner would show off with a seemingly impossible time in the low-5s. Now, imagine watching someone cover a full mile in under four minutes.
That's exactly what 16-year-old Sam Ruthe did last weekend at the John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston. He crossed the finish line in an extraordinary 3:48.88 minutes, setting a new world record for the fastest mile run by an athlete under 18 years old.
Ruthe trailed Belgian Pieter Sisk entering his final lap but flipped the script in the last 100 meters, crossing the finish line 1.43 seconds faster than Sisk.
“I didn’t feel like I was going that fast, to be honest," Ruthe told Flo Track after the run. "I still don’t believe it…I’m completely stoked."
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Ruthe, who hails from New Zealand, was especially surprised with his time because the Boston race was only meant to be a "rust buster" following his 9,000-mile flight to Boston a few days prior.
Still, this wasn’t Ruthe’s first time seeing a sub-four-minute mile. Last March, he ran a 3:58.35 in Auckland, becoming the youngest athlete on record to break the four-minute barrier. Ruthe’s latest performance also set a new New Zealand national record across all ages, surpassing Olympic gold medalist John Walker’s time of 3:49.08.
Ruthe will return to his home country of New Zealand for the national championships next month.