{"id":440983,"date":"2026-05-23T02:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T02:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/440983\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T02:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T02:57:10","slug":"still-a-big-season-ahead-sam-ruthe-passes-up-on-comm-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/440983\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Still a big season ahead’: Sam Ruthe passes up on Comm Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teen running sensation Sam Ruthe<\/a> says he will pass-up on this year’s Commonwealth Games, adding the decision was due to a stress fracture recovery window which would have put him in a poor position to perform.<\/p>\n

Ruthe’s coach, Craig Kirkwood, confirmed safety and injury prevention were key in the decision to focus instead on World Athletics U20 Champs and European racing, in a video of the two which was posted Ruthe’s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

“We’re safer doing that, rather than trying to push to get a performance at a level [at the Commonwealth Games] we would be happy with, was what it boiled down to,” said Kirkwood. <\/p>\n

“We do, also, wanna make sure that when you do represent New Zealand in the NZOC at such a pinnacle event, that you do it at the best of your ability and we’re not going in there undercooked.”<\/p>\n

Ruthe agreed he’d prefer to show up in top form, that travelling to the Commonwealth Games in a reduced capacity would be a “waste of time”. <\/p>\n

“It’s so much more satisfying turning up to a race knowing that you’re in form to actually compete,” said the runner.<\/p>\n

Of his recovery, Ruthe said the future was “looking really positive” and that while he was still finalising his plans, he’s “still got a big season ahead”.<\/p>\n

“World juniors is a still a really really good event, and I\u2019m still really fortunate enough to have, you know, another event [like World Juniors].”<\/p>\n

“It’s a little bit further into the future so hopefully i’ll be in great form by then.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teen running sensation Sam Ruthe says he will pass-up on this year’s Commonwealth Games, adding the decision was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,97379,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-440983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sport-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}