At the NCAA Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Auburn junior Ja'Kobe Tharp ran 12.75 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles during the preliminary round—and shattered a 13-year-old world record that most runners thought would stand for years to come. What made the moment even more extraordinary: Tharp insisted he wasn't even close to perfect. "My last three hurdles were kind of trash. I have more in my legs," he told ESPN afterward, his voice still tinged with the disbelief of what he'd just accomplished.
The significance of what happened on day one of the championships cannot be overstated. Tharp broke Aries Merritt's world record of 12.80, set in 2012, becoming the first man to break a world record at the NCAA Championships since Dwight Stones cleared 7'7¼" in the high jump in 1976—nearly 50 years ago. That Stones was calling the race for ESPN made the moment even more poignant, a living bridge between two generations of collegiate greatness.
Tharp came to Eugene confident but measured. His personal best of 13.01, clocked last year to win the USATF Outdoor Championships, had put him in range of Grant Holloway's 2019 NCAA record of 12.98. Breaking the world record was always theoretically possible, but as Tharp himself noted in the mixed zone, he'd expected to run somewhere in the 12.97 to 12.98 range. "I figured it would be 97, 98 to match the record but to see that, I'm speechless, honestly," he said, still processing the 12.75 that appeared on the scoreboard.
The surge in Tharp's performance is no accident. His coach, Ken Harnden, attributes the breakthrough to training with Auburn's sprint squad—the same group that warmed up the track on Wednesday by running a collegiate-record 37.75 in the 4x100-meter relay. Tharp is the only American male runner to hold an active world record in an individual Olympic event, a distinction that underscores both his achievement and the rarity of what he's done at the collegiate level.
Yet the story doesn't end with a coronation. Despite his world record and his status as the reigning U.S. champion who took sixth place at the 2025 World Championships, Tharp faces a formidable challenge on Friday's final: Kendrick Smallwood of the University of Texas. Smallwood clocked 13.04 at the West Regional, faster than Tharp's season best of 13.05 at the time—a reminder that even world records don't guarantee NCAA titles. The two will meet to decide the crown, and Tharp is keeping his focus razor-sharp. "I'm trying to focus on what's here in front of me," he said when asked about life after the NCAA. "I still have to finish it in two days."
It's a grounded perspective from an athlete who just did something once-in-a-generation. Tharp ran the hurdles of his life—or so he thought—only to tell the world he still has more to give.