It was the athletics story that caused the world to sit up and take notice.Ja’Kobe Tharp’s shock 110m hurdles world record at the NCAA outdoor track and field championship on Wednesday at the University of Oregon, where he clocked 12.75 seconds, 0.05 seconds faster than the previous record, seemed to announce the arrival of the sport’s next superstar.So who is the 20-year-old American, just how good can he be and what happens now?What do we know about Ja’Kobe Tharp?He’s a junior at Auburn University, Alabama, having represented the school his entire collegiate career. Two years ago, Tharp — who grew up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee — won 110m hurdles gold at the World Under-20 Championships in Lima, Peru. The same season, he finished runner-up at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships as a freshman and in June 2024, ran the fastest time by a teenage American for 46 years, with his 13.18s clocking (over age-group height hurdles) just six hundredths outside the under-20 world record.That upward trajectory has continued. He completed the collegiate hurdles double in 2025 — winning over 60m indoors and 110m outdoors — before delivering an upset at U.S. trials. There, after only placing third in his semi-final (13.30s) and sneaking into the final, he won the national title in a personal best 13.01s and booked his place at the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. On his senior global championships debut, he made the final and placed sixth.A professional career beckons once he graduates, unless he decides to forego a final year of NCAA eligibility at the end of this summer.Ja’Kobe Tharp qualified for last year’s World Championships in Japan (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)How much of a shock was his performance in Oregon this week?Tharp answered that himself post-race. “I’m speechless. I didn’t mean to,” he 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. 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.”