Spring Valley native Laulauga “Lagi” Tausaga-Collins calls herself “kind of a pessimist,” especially after February, when she was out sick for 28 days and had poor marks in the discus throw.
Maybe not anymore.
On Tuesday in Budapest, Hungary, the Mount Miguel High School graduate leapfrogged from 12th to fifth to first place at the World Track and Field Championships — but had to wait for a last throw by the Tokyo Olympic champion before she could claim gold.
Watching Valarie Allman, who set an American record last year at UC San Diego’s famed wind-blown discus field, was “like the sickest I felt in my whole life,” Tausaga told an interviewer. “My heart was pounding because this was the girl who could actually do it.”
But on her sixth and final throw of the 2.2-pound disc, Allman fell short.
The title went to Tausaga — who twice Tuesday raised her personal record — first on her third throw (to qualify for a final three tosses) and then to a stunning 69.49 meters — a quarter of an inch shy of 228 feet.
After her 14-foot lifetime improvement, the 2019 NCAA champion out of the University of Iowa hailed her U.S. teammate Allman, who led through four rounds and ended with silver.
“Val was the girl who could upset everybody,” Tausaga said, still draped in an American flag. “She should have no shame in losing because she has helped create such a good environment. She has been the precursor to people like me coming up. … I was very excited to be on the level as her.”
Tuesday didn’t start well for Tausaga. Her first throw was a sector foul — out of bounds. Her second was 52.28 (171-6 1/4). But her third was a personal best 65.56 (215-1), similar to what she did at the USA nationals. Her fourth was a foul.
At nationals in early July, she threw 65 meters to make her third world team — a “throw that told me everything was going to be OK, and what I was doing was right. . . . It was OK to have crappy throws as long as I made that team.”
The Hawaii-born track star’s winning toss Tuesday in Round 5 was a feeling “like I got all of it,” she said. When it left her hand, “that was it.”
After hugging her coach and dodging dozens of photographers, she called her mother, Aveaomalo Tausaga, in San Diego.
“She called right after and said: ‘I can’t believe it,’ crying,” her mother told Times of San Diego. “And I said: ‘Believe it and thank God for all.'”
Tausaga told her mother, who had watched from home, that she would send the scripture she read before she threw, adding: “But we did it, Mom. Love you.”
It was a startling turn of events for her and the track world.
In October 2019, in the stifling heat of Doha, Qatar, Tausaga fouled on her only three attempts in the World Championships final, taking last.
“With the first two throws hitting the ring, the third felt like it could have been a PR and possibly medal worthy,” said a story on hawkeyesports.com. “Without realizing, Tausaga’s foot stepped over the line, causing her to go unmarked in the finals.”
Last year, at America’s first outdoor world meet in Eugene, Oregon, Tausaga made the finals but again took 12th at 56.47 (185-3).
Track & Field News pegged her for 10th in Budapest.
Now she is world champion at 25, with the Paris Olympics beckoning in 338 days.
Tausaga, coached by John Dagata at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center, said of the winning Budapest toss: “That’s what I’ve been meditating about. … The stars aligned.”
