Ja’Kobe Tharp had already rewritten the record books. In Brussels, he showed he could do something even more important… win when the world was watching. The 20-year-old American capped his remarkable 2026 season by winning the 110m hurdles at the Diamond League Final on Friday, September 4.
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His 13.03-second run delivered his first Diamond League Final title, with Jamal Britt taking silver in 13.09 and Trey Cunningham completing an American sweep in 13.22. It was hardly a perfect race for Tharp. He was slow away from the blocks, while Cunningham controlled the early stages. Then reigning world champion Cordell Tinch, who had remained in contention late, clipped the final hurdle and crashed to the track, eventually finishing last in 18.77.
Tharp kept his composure. He battled Britt all the way to the line and held on for the victory. The win was his third Diamond League victory of the season and gave him his first Final trophy.
After the race, Tharp was honest about the performance, admitting that the clock was not the main thing on his mind. “The time was alright. It is in my top 10 of fastest time so I can’t complain. A win is a win. It felt amazing to be part of the Diamond League-circuit. It pushed me to the next level. I am super excited for the future. Hopefully I can keep going.
“I love the pressure of being world record holder. The more pressure I feel, the better I run. Only time will tell if I can go even faster. If we keep talking about the times, it will never happen. I am just focused on winning races. It was truly a blessing to run on the track where the previous world record was set. I watched this track so many times in video. To come out here and run a good performance is truly amazing.”
That mindset has defined Tharp’s breakthrough year. Back in June, at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, the 20-year-old stunned the sport by clocking 12.75 seconds and breaking Aries Merritt’s 12.80 world record from 2012.
The performance changed the conversation around him overnight. Yet Tharp refused to treat the record as a burden. Before heading into his first Diamond League Final, he made his stance clear: “I wouldn’t say the world record adds the pressure. I think me being who I am adds the pressure.”
And Brussels showed why. Even without producing another breathtaking time, Tharp found a way to win when the race became chaotic. For an athlete who had spent much of his career competing in the NCAA, the international stage was beginning to feel like home.
Ja’Kobe Tharp reveals his biggest goal
The Diamond League trophy, however, is only another milestone on Tharp’s growing list. His eyes are already fixed on something much bigger: Olympic gold at LA28.
“I do want to be Olympic champion for sure,” Tharp said after his world-record run in June. “That’s probably the biggest goal now looking forward.”
It sounds ambitious for a 20-year-old, but Tharp has spent years making ambitious predictions look less outrageous with every passing season. At the 2024 Olympic Trials, when he was just 18, he spoke with his idol Grant Holloway. Holloway’s message stayed with him: “You’re next up.”
A year later, Tharp won the U.S. title on the same Hayward Field track where Holloway had dominated. Then came his world record. Now, his first Diamond League Final victory has added another international trophy to a résumé that already includes the 2024 World U20 title and NCAA and U.S. championships.
His rise is even more striking considering he never planned to become a hurdler. Growing up in Tennessee, Tharp initially wanted to run the 100m or 200m. After missing out on his middle-school basketball team, he tried track instead. His coach, Haneef Sharif, persuaded him to give the hurdles a chance.
Tharp was not immediately convinced. The 39-inch barriers were intimidating, and he admitted, “Nobody wants to fall in front of a bunch of people.” Somehow, in eight years of hurdling, he says he has never fallen.
Instead, he became obsessed with getting better. After finishing third at the Tennessee state championships as a sophomore, he rededicated himself to his technique and eventually won the state title as a junior. On his right arm, he marked that achievement with a tattoo of a man climbing stairs and the words “stay hungry.”
Those words became almost prophetic. Reflecting on his world record, Tharp recalled that at 15 he had told people he would become the fastest hurdler in the world. At the time, he was running 14.2 seconds and losing races.
“EVERYBODY laughed,” he wrote. “I can count on one hand, the amount of people who actually believed in me. But I stayed hungry.”
Now, the laughter has been replaced by expectations. Yet Tharp seems comfortable carrying them. After Brussels, he admitted the time was only “alright,” but emphasized that winning was what mattered.
“I love the pressure of being world record holder,” he said. “The more pressure I feel, the better I run.”
For Tharp, that may be the most intriguing part of his rise. The world record made him famous. The Diamond League trophy proved he can handle the spotlight. And with LA28 approaching, the 20-year-old is no longer simply chasing the next hurdle… he is chasing history.