NZ teen becomes youngest athlete in history to break four-minute mile

Sam Ruthe smashed the record during an athletics event in Auckland.

The young Kiwi runner set the record just 24 days before his 16th birthday. Credit: Getty Images

Australia's teenage middle-distance star Cam Myers now faces a new rival from New Zealand, as a young talent there makes his mark in athletics.

At 15, Sam Ruthe has become the youngest athlete in history to run a sub-four-minute mile on Wednesday, some 71 years since Roger Bannister first achieved the athletic landmark — which was once believed to have been impossible.

Ruthe, a New Zealand running superstar in the making, smashed the landmark by two seconds at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland, helped to a time of three minutes 58.35 seconds by pacemakers.

Ruthe, who finished second in the race, beat his previous mark of four minutes and 1.72 seconds achieved in January at the Cooks Classic, a premier athletics event in Whanganui, New Zealand

The previous record for youngest sub-four-minute miler was held by the Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who clocked 3:58.07 at the age of 16 some eight years ago and has since gone on to become a double Olympic champion.

Next up, Ruthe, who achieved the record-breaking run 24 days short of his 16th birthday, will doubtless be after the record for the best time ever run by a 16-year-old — the 3:55.44 clocked by Canberra's Myers, who's since gone on to achieve his own remarkable feats.

Myers, now 18, has broken the under-20 indoor world mile record twice this year, clocking his latest landmark of 3:47.48 in the Wanamaker Mile in New York in February — the first time a teenager had broken 3:48 for the mile, either indoors or outdoors.

Now it's Ruthe's turn to stun the athletics world.

"This was probably my favourite goal that I've reached. I've enjoyed this one the most, with all the people here supporting me," he said.

Ruthe broke the age-15 world record for the 3,000m in November and then improved it twice more. Most recently, he clocked 7:56.18 at the New Zealand Championships, becoming the youngest-ever senior male national champion in any event.