World records in track and field, generally speaking, are the preserve of the Olympic Games. The World Championships. The Diamond League.On Wednesday, fans at the NCAA track and field championships in Eugene, Ore., were treated to a rare surprise. Auburn’s Ja’Kobe Tharp stunned the crowd at Hayward Field by hurdling 110 meters in 12.75 seconds in a preliminary race—a time that, pending ratification, will break the previous world record by a twentieth of a second."I'm speechless. I didn't mean to," Tharp said in a team press release. “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. I'm always only focused on me. I knew what I was capable of. I knew I had something faster than 13.0 in my legs.”The old mark of 12.80 had stood since 2012, set by Aries Merritt of the United States at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels. Each of the five fastest times in history were run by Americans: Tharp, Merritt, Grant Holloway in Eugene, Ore., in 2021, Devon Allen in New York in 2022, and Holloway in Eugene, Ore., in 2024.In his race, Tharp bested second-place finisher Kendrick Smallwood of Texas by more than a quarter of a second, while Demario Prince of Baylor took third.It’s quite rare for a world record to fall in an American collegiate settingThere is only one world record currently standing set at the NCAA championships: the men’s 400-meter short track, run in 44.57 by future three-time American Olympic medalist Kerron Clement in Fayetteville, Ark., in 2005. A few short-track world records have been set at college invitationals as well; keep in mind that the college level has a robust indoor season while most major competitions take place outdoors.ESPN, on its broadcast, said that Tharp’s was the first world record set at the NCAA championships since 1976. Dwight Stones of Long Beach State set the high jump world record in Philadelphia that year—the second of three times he’d set it overall.Historically, college track and field provided the sport with one of its greatest moments in 1935. At the Big Ten championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., Jesse Owens set three world records and tied a fourth in the span of 45 minutes.Tharp, just 20, has built quite the résuméIn `24, about a month after the Paris Olympics, Tharp traveled to Lima and won 110-meter hurdles gold in the under-20 World Championships with a 13.05—the best time in the world that season. The next year, he tied his personal best in winning the NCAA title, and shaved 0.04 seconds off it in winning the American title. Tharp is also a proficient practitioner of the 60-meter hurdles, where he’s run two of the 20 fastest times in history—a 7.32 and a 7.36 in Fayetteville, Ark., in March.The 110-meter hurdles final is scheduled for Friday evening. What the Murfeesboro, Tenn., native has in store for an encore bears watching.More on Sports IllustratedAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow