Sam Ruthe gives up on Commonwealth Games, focus moves to U20 champs

Injured teen running sensation Sam Ruthe has decided he will not pursue the 2026 Commonwealth Games, instead targeting the World Athletics U20 Championships in August.

More than five weeks ago Ruthe revealed that he had suffered a stress fracture to his lower leg, from playing football.

It put into doubt his plans for the year, which included the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, starting on 23 July and the U20 championships in the United States in early August.

No decisions were made at the time on Ruthe's availability for the upcoming events or a time frame on a possible return to the track.

But in a video posted on a YouTube channel set up by Ruthe, the 17-year-old said he did not want to be underdone going into such a pinnacle event.

"Kind of came to the conclusion that by the time the Commonwealth Games [comes] around I probably wouldn't be in my best form. For me it's really important turning up to a race and being in the best form because then mentally I'm there. It's so much more satisfying turning up to a race knowing that you're in good enough form to actually compete."

Ruthe stunned the athletics community with a series of blistering performances over the past year, knocking off numerous national and world age group records.

In January, he broke Sir John Walker's long-standing national mile record when he clocked 3min 48.88sec at an indoor meet in Boston, at the same time smashing the U18 world record for the mile.

Ruthe initially did not consider the 2026 Commonwealth Games until his Boston results convinced him and his team to push for the 1500m event in Glasgow, which he has already met the qualification standard for.

The teenager is being treated by High Performance New Zealand doctor Dan Exeter and Tauranga-based physiotherapist Leanna Veale, along with his coach Craig Kirkwood.

Kirkwood said going back to their original position at the start of the year made sense now.

"Let's make World Juniors the focus again and not push for a Commonwealth Games that might not be as successful as we would have liked and to be an experience that wasn't up to the standard we were looking for," Kirkwood said.

"We're safer doing that rather than trying to push to get a performance at a level that we would deem acceptable and be happy with at the Comm Games, and that's really kind of what it really boiled down to.

"We also want make sure that when you do represent New Zealand at such a pinnacle event that you do it to the best of your ability and we're not going in there undercooked. I think if we pushed for this year we would probably find that you'd be underdone.

"You wouldn't want to be standing on that start line not ready, it would not be a great experience."

It has also been revealed that Ruthe had a second injury scare a few days ago.

"Everything was ticking along, going to plan, recovery was going pretty well, he woke up with quite a sore foot, quickly arranged an MRI and we're just waiting on those results now to find out whether it is potentially a second stress fracture," his father Ben Ruthe shared on YouTube.

But Ben told RNZ on Friday the second MRI results came back and Sam got the all-clear.

"He has been swimming PBs in the pool over 200m and 400m and beating his 20 minute power on the bike."

Two weeks ago Ruthe started jogging and has built his way up to 6km runs.

"He is fit and the challenge is to carefully ease back into running as his stress fracture is effectively healed but the tendons and muscles need time to catch up to his fitness level so its all about being cautious as he gets back to training," Ben Ruthe said.

Kirkwood said Ruthe would target a track season in Europe after the U20 championships in August.

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