Ja'Kobe Tharp runs 12.75 in an NCAA heat, a 110 m hurdles world record if ratified
The Auburn junior took 0.05 off Aries Merritt's 2012 mark with a legal 1.0 tailwind at Hayward Field, then won Friday's final in 12.90 into a headwind.
Photograph: Ja'Kobe Tharp after winning the 110 m hurdles at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, by youthrunnermag, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsJa'Kobe Tharp ran 12.75 for the 110 m hurdles in the second heat of the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field on Wednesday. The wind was a legal 1.0 m/s. If World Athletics ratifies it, it is a world record: Aries Merritt's 12.80 had stood since 2012.
It happened in a preliminary round, in a meet most people were watching for the team race. The other two heats were won in 13.02 and 13.17. Demario Prince of Baylor was second in Tharp's heat in 13.15, four tenths back.
Tharp is a 20-year-old junior at Auburn. On Friday he came back for the final and won again, 12.90 into a 0.2 headwind, from Kendrick Smallwood of Texas, 12.95, and Braxton Brann of Ohio State, 13.07.
For context, six days earlier Trey Cunningham had run 12.98 in Rome and it was the fastest time in the world this year. The pros will see Tharp soon enough.
A world record in a heat is the purest kind. Nobody paced it, nobody planned it, and the only thing on the line was a lane in the final.
Sources: Flash Results; Wikipedia; Wikipedia; The Running Channel.
