Hurdles record-breaker Tharp says 'sky's the limit'

Newly minted 110m hurdles world record holder Ja'Kobe Tharp says the "sky's the limit" as he prepares to return to Hayward Field in Saturday's Eugene Diamond League athletics meeting.

Tharp, 20, erased the nearly 14-year-old world record with a stunning 12.75sec in the heats of the NCAA collegiate championships last month.

He took more than a quarter of a second off his previous personal best of 13.01, and Tharp said Friday he is confident he can go even faster.

"I've watched it 10, 15 times," he said of the race that he acknowledged surprised even himself. "My start was OK. It was efficient but it wasn't the best as I think it could have been.

"And my last three could definitely be a little bit better ... I'm going to take that down again soon."

Speaking at a press conference before the Prefontaine Classic, the only US stop on the Diamond League calendar, Tharp said he didn't know if it would be as soon as Saturday.

"So I've been trying to just keep the main thing as the main thing -- stay focused as best as I can," Tharp said.

"I mean, it has made it easier because I wasn't planning on going out there and doing that. So I really know now that if I just go out there and execute, the sky's the limit."

Tharp's first test on an elite stage since he broke the record will also mark his first since turning professional this week.

He'll face a field that includes world champion Cordell Tinch and world silver medalist Orlando Bennett as well as Jamal Britt, who clocked 12.89 in Paris in June.

The women's 100m hurdles world record could also be under threat. Olympic gold medalist Masai Russell ran 12.14 in Xiamen in May, just two-hundredths of a second off the world record set by Nigerian Tobi Amusan at the 2022 World Championships at Hayward Field.

Amusan is in the field, as is the previous world record-holder, Keni Harrison.

Russell said she's learning to embrace expectations that, in light of her red-hot form, she'll be the next to lower the mark but said: "at the end of the day, I have to do it. I have to show up when it matters."

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© Agence France-Presse