Auburn hurdler breaks world record during NCAA championships at Hayward

There’s a new world record holder in the men’s 110-meter hurdles — and it’s a 20-year-old college junior.

Running in the second of three preliminary heats of the 110-meter hurdles at the NCAA Track & Field Championships Wednesday night at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ja’Kobe Tharp of Auburn University clocked 12.75 seconds.

American athlete Aries Merritt was the previous record holder, with his 12.80 from 2012 — 14 years ago.  

Tharpe ran his previous personal best of 13.01 seconds last August at the U.S. championships, also at Hayward Field in Eugene. 

Tharp, who is the defending NCAA champion, said he didn’t mean to run a world record. He was in disbelief after his run.

“I was going pretty fast,” he said. “That last hurdle was kind of iffy, I was like, ‘Whoa, that last hurdle is coming up fast.’” He thought he would turn and see 12.97 or 12.98 on the clock. 

When he saw 12.75, he was shocked. 

“I’m speechless, seriously,” he said.

Tharp has to win the final on Friday to repeat as NCAA champion. But it seems unlikely anyone can challenge him. The second fastest qualifier on Wednesday, Kendrick Smallwood of Texas, ran 13.02, a substantial margin behind Tharp.

Tharp’s results show several abbreviations next to his name: WR for world record, MR for meet record, CR for collegiate record — and PB for personal best.

Merritt, the previous record holder, is now an assistant coach at Texas State University, and the university has eight athletes at NCAAs. Merritt and Tharp took a photo together after the race at Hayward.

Merritt wasn’t surprised his record went down.

“Did I expect it? I mean, I had a feeling, because Ja’Kobe is a phenomenal athlete,” Merritt said, adding that he was happy to see it go after 14 years.

“It was almost freeing,” he said.