Ja'Kobe Tharp blitzed the 110-meter hurdles world record Wednesday at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon, posting a stunning 12.75 seconds in the preliminary round.
The 20-year-old Auburn University sprinter obliterated the previous mark of 12.80 seconds, set by Olympic champion Aries Merritt in Brussels in 2012. Tharp's performance came with a legal tailwind of 1.0 meters per second at Hayward Field.
The achievement carries extra weight: it marks the first world record set at an NCAA championship since 1976, when high jumper Dwight Stones posted his record. Tharp also demolished the NCAA record of 12.98 seconds, which Grant Holloway established in 2019.
The result was stunning given Tharp's trajectory into the meet. He arrived in Eugene with a personal best of 13.01 seconds, meaning he shaved more than a quarter-second off his previous fastest effort.
"I knew I had that in my legs," Tharp said after crossing the finish line. "But it wasn't on my bingo card before this meet, not at all. I was going pretty fast. The last three hurdles were kind of iffy. I was like, 'Whoa, I'm coming up kind of fast.' I thought maybe 12.97 or 12.98, and match the speed record. But to see that, it was like, 'Ahhhhh!' I'm speechless, seriously. I really wanted to make a statement today."
Tharp, who holds an under-20s world championship title, competed in the 110-meter hurdles final at the 2025 world championships in Tokyo earlier this year, finishing sixth.
Author James Rodriguez: "This is the kind of breakthrough that changes a career overnight. Tharp just vaulted into the upper tier of global track talent with one explosive race."
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