On Tuesday, Ja’Kobe Tharp watched the fastest 110m hurdles race in history. On Wednesday, Tharp ran the fastest 110m hurdles race in history.
Tharp, an Auburn junior, clocked 12.75 seconds to break the world record in the NCAA Track and Field Championships semifinals at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.
“Coaches said, ‘Execute.’ My last three hurdles were kind of trash. ... I have more in my legs,” Tharp said on ESPN. “That was not a picture-perfect race.”
Tharp’s time — run with a 1.0 meter/second tailwind, well below the legal limit of 2.0 — broke fellow American Aries Merritt’s world record of 12.80 from 2012.
From time to time, Tharp rewatches fast 110m hurdles races on the nights before big meets. The menu Tuesday included Merritt’s record.
“Fastest hurdles race ever,” Tharp reasoned. “Well, it was.”
JA'KOBE THARP ARE YOU KIDDING ME 🤯 12.75
— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) June 11, 2026
✅ NCAA RECORD
✅ WORLD RECORD#NCAATF x 🎥 ESPN / @AuburnTFXC pic.twitter.com/YuN7crt8kc
Tharp takes over from Merritt (now an assistant coach at Texas State) as the only American male runner to hold an active world record in an individual Olympic event.
“To pass the torch is a profound moment, but to pass it to someone as remarkably talented as Ja’Kobe Tharp is an honor,” was posted on Merritt’s social media with a photo of Merritt with Tharp outside Hayward.
Tharp is also the first man to break a world record at NCAAs since Dwight Stones in the high jump in 1976, according to the NCAA. Stones called Wednesday’s race for ESPN.
Tharp’s previous personal best of 13.01 seconds from winning the 2025 USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships put him outside the 30 fastest men in history.
He placed sixth in his World Championships debut last September, two weeks before turning 20 years old.
Since Merritt broke the world record to cap his incredible 2012 season that included an Olympic gold medal, Americans Grant Holloway (12.81 in 2021) and Devon Allen (12.84 in 2022) came close to breaking the record.
In the end it was Tharp, a 6-foot-4-inch native of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He’s the youngest man to break a world record in an individual Olympic running event since Renaldo Nehemiah in the 110m hurdles in 1979.
The professional track and field season continues Sunday with the LA Grand Prix, expected to include Sha’Carri Richardson in the 100m, live on NBC and Peacock from 4-6 p.m. ET.
