Source: Radio New Zealand
Boh Ritchie (right) wins the NZ 800 metres title at Dunedin. Michael Dawson/Athletics NZ 2025
Even in her finest hour, Boh Ritchie found her long-awaited breakthrough lost amid the clamour over another distance-running prodigy on this side of the Tasman.
In December, the Cambridge teen erased a Kiwi athletics legend from the record books, eclipsing Lorraine Moller’s junior 800 metres mark with 2m 03.14s in Sydney.
Unfortunately, that same night, Sam Ruthe, 16, grabbed all the headlines with another in a string of extraordinary performances in his 5000 metres debut in Auckland.
In the space of a month, the kid from Tauranga has captured national U20 records over 800m, 1000m, 1500m and 5000m. This is his time, it seems, and Ritchie and the rest of us are just living in it.
“I don’t mind it like that, to be fair,” she admitted. “He’s done some incredible things.
“He’s such a lovely boy, so sweet and so humble – he definitely deserves it.”
While Ruthe has burst onto the stage only over the past 12 months, becoming the youngest ‘man’ to break four minutes for a mile while still 15, Ritchie’s emergence has been more of a slow burn over several years.
She has already won 11 national titles at 800m, mile, 1500m, cross-country, 3000m, 5000m and 4x400m relays, including her first senior crown over the two laps last summer.
That’s a CV eerily reminiscent of the woman she has usurped from the records.
Moller, who was made an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit in the 2026 New Year Honours, was also 18, when she clocked 2m 03.63s for fifth at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, springboarding a career that would blaze a trail for women into professional running.
Over the next 20 years, she would compete at four Olympics, taking marathon bronze at 1992 Barcelona, and taking bronze over 1500 metres and 3000 metres at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games.
Moller also finished fifth at the 1975 world cross-country championships in Morocco, spearheading New Zealand’s runner-up finish in the women’s teams standings.
Ritchie had been gunning for her 800 metres standard since closing within a few hundredths of a second at the Potts Classic in Hastings last February.
“When I ran 2.03 high, I knew I had a shot,” she reflected. “It was just a matter of finding the right race.
“To be fair, I’ve been enjoying the process more, without putting pressure on myself to get the time.
“I feel quite privileged to get it just before I turn 19.”
Moller was among the first to congratulate Ritchie on social media afterwards, but the youngster has been unable to reciprocate.
“That was pretty special and I really wanted to reach out to her, but I don’t know how to work Facebook,” Ritchie confessed.
“She’s definitely an inspiration to me, the fact she ran such a range of disciplines, from 800 to marathon, with so much success. The versatility she had is something I very much admire, as I try to keep that range as much as I can and explore different events.
“I think it makes the sport fun by changing it up a little bit, which is very important. You see a lot of pro athletes switching events to keep longevity in their careers.”
Ritchie can now set her sights on the world junior championships at Eugene, Oregon, in August, but has plenty of challenges ahead of her in the meantime.
This week, she joins the NZ contingent at the world cross country championships at Tallahassee, Florida, where she will contest the mixed relay event.
Beyond, Ritchie will settle into a scholarship at Penn State University, the latest Kiwi woman to seek career advancement within the US college system.
Paris Olympian Maia Ramsden won an NCAA indoor mile title and back-to-back 1500m outdoor titles for Harvard University, retaining her crown ahead of compatriot Kimberley May of Providence in 2024.
Last year, May took bronze over 1500m at the World University Games, while Hannah Gapes placed fifth at the 2025 national cross-country championships, leading North Carolina State to team honours.
Ritchie will join a Nittany Lions programme that finished 10th at the cross-country nationals, with the indoor season already underway.
“I feel like it’s got a great culture and it feels like home,” she said of her chosen school. “I visited last April and, as I drove from the airport, the scenery was just like New Zealand, with green grass and cows and sheep.
“I met the team and they were so welcoming. A few Aussies – it’s always good to have an Aussie or two – but no New Zealanders.”
Ritchie needs only to look back through Penn State’s history to find that Kiwi connection. Aucklander Heather Carmichael – a Lydiard disciple – was part of the women’s running squad during the 1980s, achieving All-American status over 3000 metres and 5000 metres.
Defending her NZ 800m title in March may have to take a backseat to Ritchie’s new American commitments.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
