Two cheeseburgers, large fries and chicken nuggets. Nope, not a hangover cure — that was Ja’Kobe Tharp’s pre-race meal before he became the fastest sprint hurdler in history.Tharp finished in 12.75 seconds at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon, last Wednesday to take five hundredths of a second off the record set by Aries Merritt in 2012 at the Diamond League finals in Brussels, Belgium.The 20-year-old Auburn University student, from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, became the first college track and field athlete since high jumper Dwight Stones, at Long Beach State in 1976, to set a world record.Two days later, Tharp returned to Hayward Field — the stadium where he entered the record books — and successfully defended his NCAA title in the 110m hurdles to end the week with a world record and a national championship.Before that trip to Eugene, Tharp’s personal best for the event was 13.01 seconds. His 0.26-second improvement was larger than the jumps made by Merritt before his world record (0.12 seconds) and Team USA athlete Grant Holloway before his 12.81 run (0.17 seconds) at the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials.He won Under-20 World Championships gold in 2024 and represented the United States in the World Championships final in Tokyo last summer.Ja’Kobe Tharp believes he can go even quicker (Isaac Wasserman/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)The college student eats the same McDonald’s order before every race. It’s a superstition that began after he won a state title in high school.His Auburn coach, Ken Harnden, a two-time Olympian for Zimbabwe who won the NCAA 400m hurdles title in 1995 and still holds his country’s national record in the event, has overseen Tharp’s rise to become the fastest hurdler the sport has seen. Not that Harnden is a fan of his fast-food habits for pre-race fuelling.“He didn’t like it at first, but if it works, it works,” Tharp tells The Athletic. “Once you win on something, you might as well stick with it.“I get two cheeseburgers, large fries and chicken nuggets before every single run. My sophomore year of high school, I came third in my state championships. My junior year, I won — and I ate that meal that day. Ever since then, every big meet, I’ve just stuck with it.”