Laulauga Tausaga surprisingly won the women’s discus throw gold at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest

Hawaii-born American athlete Laulauga Tausaga surprised the stars in the women’s discus throw by winning the world title with a mark of 69.49m. She bettered her personal best by an impressive 4m and claimed gold, her first at a major championship.

Laulauga Tausaga struck in the fifth attempt when she overtook Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Valarie Allman (USA) from the top, whose 69.23m mark only took her silver. In third place was the world champion from Oregon 2022 Feng Bin (China), who in her last attempt made her season’s personal best of 68.20m.

Two-time Olympic, two-time world and 6-time European champion Sandra Perkovic (Croatia) was fifth with 66.57m.

Laulauga Tausaga-Collins is an American discus thrower. She also won the gold medal at the 2022 NACAC Championships. Laulauga Tausaga made the women’s discus final at 2019 world championships, won silver medals in discus at the 2019 match and 2019 NACAC U-23 Championships. She won discus at 2017 Pan American U20 Athletics Championships.