Young Tauranga runner sets world leading time

Young Tauranga runner Sam Ruthe has eclipsed the world best time for a 15-year-old over 3000m.

Sam broke the record at a meeting in Auckland recording a time of 8:09.68 which also broke the New Zealand under-17 and under-18 records.

He broke the previous best time for a 15-year-old, set by Japan's Yota Mashiko in 1995, by 1.44 seconds.

Sam is coached by one Craig Kirkwood, who also mentors two-time Olympian Sam Tanner and two-time Olympic medallist in the Triathlon, Hayden Wilde.

His father Ben is a former national middle distance champion, while his mother Jessica was a multiple national champion in distances from 1500m to 10,000m.

Even his maternal grandparents, Olympians Trevor and Rosemary Wright, brought elite talent to the family.

Rosemary, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, held the Scottish 800m record (2:00.15) for 30 years.

"He's a beast," Kirkwood said.

"I knew he'd be quick ... when we heard that the race was set up as an U17 record attempt, we thought we'd head up and see if we could get among it."

"We thought he'd be in the region of the (U17) record, but to get under 8.10 was impressive."

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