Auburn Hurdler Ja'Kobe Tharp Sets New World Record in NCAA Prelims

In the semifinal heat of the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, an Auburn hurdler did something that hasn't been done in 50 years.

Auburn hurdler Ja'Kobe Tharp broke a 13-year record in the 110-meter hurdles on Wednesday. | Howard Lao

It’s not often a world record is broken at the collegiate level, but Auburn junior Ja’Kobe Tharp did just that in Eugene, Oregon, on Wednesday. 

Tharp ran a 12.75-second time in the men’s 110-meter hurdles during the semifinal round of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. It was the first time that a collegiate athlete broke a world record in the NCAA Championships in 50 years. 

“I’m speechless. I didn’t mean to,” Tharp said. “I knew going into this meet I would be in really good shape because we started deloading to hit my peak into this meet. It was about executing and doing it.”

WORLD RECORD IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP PRELIMS 🤯

Ja'Kobe Tharp ran a 12.75 in the 110M hurdles to set a new world record! pic.twitter.com/KHD1PleVDb

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 11, 2026

The reigning under-20 world champion in this event, he beat the previous record by 0.05 seconds, which was previously held by American Aries Merritt, who broke it in Belgium back in Sept. 2012. 

By the fifth hurdle, the junior was already a body length away from the rest of his heat, already cementing that he would be a finalist for the event later on during the event. With outstretched arms as soon as he hit the finish line, he put his name not only in NCAA history, but world history. 

Tharp had the belief he could do it, too. 

“I’m always only focused on me,” he said. “I knew what I was capable of. I knew I had something faster than 13.0 in my legs.”

If anybody were to do it, it would also be the Murfreesboro, Tn., native. The standout won the National Indoor Male Track Athlete of the Year during the winter months, being the back-to-back NCAA Champion and SEC Champion in the 60-meter hurdles event. He also won the event in which he broke the record last year, and Tharp will look to go back-to-back in the 110-meter hurdle as well later this week. 

The junior wasn’t the only standout from Wednesday’s events. The Auburn men’s 4x100-meter relay team broke the collegiate record with a time of 37.75 seconds. That was 15 hundredths of a second faster than the LSU team that set the record three years ago. 

Azeemi Fahmi, Kayinsola Ajayi, Austin Kresley and Tyler Davis made up the quartet that broke the record. 

Auburn will look to break more records over the course of the remainder of the event, where it finished fourth in the men’s events total, and the women finished tied for 34th in the country by the end of last year. The Tigers have their eyes on a first-place finish for both, and they have both started the event strongly thus far.