{"id":7401,"date":"2026-09-03T17:20:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/?p=7401"},"modified":"2026-09-03T19:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:31:09","slug":"tharp-ive-watched-the-video-of-merritts-world-record-countless-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/tharp-ive-watched-the-video-of-merritts-world-record-countless-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Tharp: &#8220;I\u2019ve watched the video of Merritt\u2019s world record countless times&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Tharp is only 20 and set his world record (12.75) at the NCAA Championships, the US college championships. \u201cI just wanted to win the title there. That world record wasn\u2019t a goal \u2013 it will be later in my career \u2013 but right now it was just a bonus, the cherry on the cake,\u201d explains Tharp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAfterwards, I managed to have a quick chat with Aries Merritt; he was there as a coach. He whispered some advice in my ear. I\u2019ve watched the video of his world record, which he set here in Brussels, countless times,\u201d says the 20-year-old world record holder, who is still at the very beginning of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAbove all, I\u2019m delighted that I\u2019m having a very consistent first professional season. I want to show people who I am, especially when it really counts. And that\u2019s certainly the case for the Wanda Diamond League final. I\u2019ll try to shift up a gear, level up there. I\u2019m really looking forward to Friday\u2019s race. It\u2019s all about trophies and medals \u2013 they\u2019re for life. Records are there to be broken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not suffering from fatigue. I train to be ready for every race, even late in the season,\u201d concludes a confident Tharp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper has-smush-lazyload-video\"><div class=\"lazyload smush-lazyload-video smush-lazyload-youtube\" style=\"--smush-video-aspect-ratio: 500\/281\" data-bg-image=\"url(https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=smush_video_thumbnail&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FTmx4sZ0vnt8%3Ffeature%3Doembed&#038;video_width=500&#038;video_height=281)\" ><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"2026 Press Conference Highlights Brussels - Wanda Diamond League\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tmx4sZ0vnt8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\"><\/iframe><span class=\"smush-play-btn\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Play video\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<span tabindex=\"0\" class=\"smush-play-btn-inner\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Play<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2012, Aries Merritt ran a world record time in the 110-metre hurdles at the Allianz Memorial...","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":7345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-7401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brussels-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7401"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7445,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401\/revisions\/7445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7401"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brussels.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=7401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}