Tausaga-Collins pulls off stunning victory in World Champs
American adds 13 feet to her personal best to upset Allman in women's discus
On a night when Faith Kipyegon of Kenya and Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco maintained their dominance in the women’s 1,500 meters and men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday, Laulauga Tuasaga-Collins of the U.S. pulled off a stunning upset victory in the women’s discus.
The 25-year-old Tausaga-Collins had entered the meet as the No. 8-ranked thrower in the field based on her season best. But she won it with a fifth-round effort of 69.49 meters (228 feet 0 inches) that added more than four meters to her personal best of 65.56 (215-1) that she had set in the third round when she moved from 12th place to fifth in the competition.
Up until Tausaga-Collins’ winning throw, Olympic champion and U.S. teammate Valarie Allman had the three longest throws of the competition with marks of 69.23 (227-1) in the fourth round, 68.79 (225-8) in the third, and 68.57 (224-11) in the first. But when her last two throws measured 64.60 (211-11) and 68.61 (225-1), Tausaga-Collins knew she was the World champion when she stepped into the ring for the final throw of the competition.
Although you could see that she was dealing with a lot of emotions, Tausaga-Collins got off a throw of 68.36 (224-3) that was nearly 10 feet further than her pre-meet best.
“I have all the feelings and no words. It’s amazing,” Tausaga-Collins said when NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson asked her about how she was feeling.
Bin Feng of China, who had won last year’s World title after improving her personal best by more than three meters on her first throw of the competition, finished third at 68.20 (223-9). She was followed by Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands at 77.20 (220-6) and Sandra Perkovic of Croatia at 66.57 (218-5), who had finished second in last year’s meet and in the Olympic Games.
One of the most impressive things about Tausaga-Collins’ victory was the way it came about.
She had fouled on the first throw of the final and had thrown a paltry 52.28 (171-6) on her second attempt.
That left her last in the 12-woman field. But knowing that she had to be in the top eight throwers after the third round in order to be awarded three more attempts in the competition, she came through with her 65.56 throw that topped her previous best of 65.46 (214-9) that had come in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships on July 9 when she finished second to Allman.
Her best in the USATF meet had come in the sixth round and exceeded the qualifying standard of 64.20 (210-7) for the World Championships, something she had not done before then.
“I had seen some things in practice, but it wasn’t steady enough,” Tausaga-Collins said when Johnson asked her where her fifth-round throw had come from. “And if you saw the first couple of rounds, I wasn’t going to make the final. Then I had one [foul] and my coach was like, at this point, we go guns blazing and see what happens. We see things in practice and it’s been hit or miss. And he’s like, maybe this is the time it hits, and it happened.”
Although the 28-year-old Allman was initially visibly disappointed to have lost a competition she entered as the favorite and dominated for the first four rounds, she was very gracious when speaking with Johnson.
“I feel so proud and so honored to be standing here with Lagi Lagi who has been fighting for a long time, and to have a breakthrough performance on the big stage is something that is a huge accomplishment,” she said. “I wanted to win tonight. I came prepared to win tonight. It’s hard when someone throws a four-meter [personal best]. But there’s no one that I’d rather be sitting next to to do it. So I’m really proud of our country and of our sport.”
While Kipyegon and El Bakkali were winning their second consecutive titles on Tuesday, Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy won his first title in the men’s high jump while competing in the World Championships for the fifth time.
The 29-year-old Kipyegon was an overwhelming favorite in the women’s 1,500 meters as she had lowered the world record in the event to 3 minutes 49.11 seconds on June 2 and set a world record of 4:07.64 in the mile on July 21.
She was not expected to chase any kind of records in the 1,500 in the World Championships because she will also be running the 5,000, the event in which she ran a world record of 14:05.20 on June 9.
Nonetheless, she took the lead after the first 100 meters of the race on Tuesday and was never passed.
She came through 400 meters in 65.14, 800 in 2:11.78, and 1,200 in 3:12.41.
Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, Ciara Mageean of Ireland, Laura Muir of Great Britain, and Kenyan countrywoman Nelly Chepchirchir were relatively close to Kipyegon with 300 meters to go. But Kipyegon had opened up a small lead over second-place Welteji with 200 meters to go and her advantage had grown to about five meters entering the home straightaway.
It was then that she stepped on the accelerator, although she never seemed to floor it, and began to quickly pull away, crossing the finish line in 3:54.87.
Hassan tried to pass Welteji in the final 100 meters, but was unable to do so as the 21-year-old Ethiopian ran 3:55.69 to Hassan’s 3:56.00. Mageean finished fourth in a national record of 3:56.61, followed by Chepchirchir in a personal best of 3:57.90, and Olympic silver medalist Muir in 3:58.58.
“This is a great season for me.” Kipyegon was quoted as saying in a post on oregonlive.com. “I told myself, You are the strongest and just keep going.”
The victory gave Kipyegon an unprecedented third World title in the 1,500 to go with two silver medals and a pair of gold medals in the Olympic Games.
Olympic champion El Bakkali won his second consecutive World title in the steeplechase after staying back in the pack early in the race, moving toward the front when world-record-holder Lamecha Girma did likewise with a kilometer left, and then blowing things open in the final 120 meters.
The race between the 27-year-old El Bakkali and the 22-year-old Girma was expected to be close because Girma had set a world record indoor record of 7:23.81 in the 3,000 in February and lowered the steeplechase mark to 7:52.11 on June 9.
However, he was no match for the Moroccan in the last half lap of the race. El Bakkali passed him about 30 meters before the last water jump, opened up a five-meter lead on him entering the home straightaway, and motored away from him after that.
El Bakkali ran 8:03.53, followed by Girma in 8:05.44.
It was the third consecutive silver medal in the World Championships for Girma, who also finished second to El Bakkali in the Olympics.
Abraham Kibiwott of Kenya finished third in 8:11.98, followed by countryman Leonard Kipkemboi Bett in 8:12.26 and New Zealand’s George Beamish in 8:13.46. Kibiwott won the bronze medal, despite fall to the track after the first barrier on the last lap.
“After winning in Eugene last year, I am really proud to bring home another gold,” El Bakkali was quoted as saying in a Reuters post. “I had great preparations for these championships but today’s field was very strong with athletes like Lamecha.”
He then added that “I came ready and prepared and I believed I could win. This medal gives me additional motivation for the Olympic Games in Paris. I want to win there too.”
Tamberi had shared the Olympic title in the men’s high jump with Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar, but his highest finish in the World Championships until Tuesday was a fourth-place effort last year.
Unbeaten American JuVaughn Harrison and three-time defending champion Barshim were regarded as co-favorites entering the meet, and Harrison was in the lead when the bar was raised to 2.36 (7-8¾) after he had cleared 2.25 (7-4½), 2.29 (7-6), and 2.33 (7-7¾) on his first attempts. But Tamberi, who needed two tries to clear 2.25, took the lead when he cleared 2.36 on his first attempt and it took Harrison two tries.
With everyone else out of the competition at that point, the bar was raised to 2.38 (7-9¾).
Harrison missed all three of his tries at that height, although he had a close effort on his third jump.
The 31-year-old Tamberi missed his first two attempts, and with the gold medal secured after Harrison’s third miss, he passed his final attempt to 2.40 (7-10½), which he missed.
Barshim, Luis Enrique Zayas of Cuba, and Tobias Potye of Germany each cleared 2.33, but Barshim finished third because he had four total misses in the competition and Zayas had five.
Zayas finished fourth ahead of Potye because he cleared 2.33 on his first attempt and it took Potye two tries to make that height.
The victory made Tamberi the first man to win World titles indoors and outdoors, as well as a gold medal in the Olympics.
“I just went for it,” Tamberi was quoted as saying in a World Athletics post. “I wanted to write history by winning gold medals at all the major competitions. The feeling is amazing. It is worth all the sacrifices over the years. After the qualifications I was a little scared because I did not feel as good as I wanted, but I knew I always change in the final.”
In addition to the four finals contested on Tuesday, semifinals were held in the men’s 400 meters and in the women’s 400 hurdles, and heats were run in the men’s 800 and in the women’s 100 hurdles.
In the men’s 400 semifinals, Antonio Watson of Jamaica set a personal best of 44.13 in winning the first of three heats, with Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain winning the second in a European record of 44.26, and Quincy Hall of the U.S. winning the third in 44.43.
Stephen Gardiner of the Bahamas, one of the pre-meet favorites along with Wayne van Niekirk of South Africa, was leading the third semifinal coming out of the second turn, but he pulled up suddenly and was taken off the track in a wheelchair.
Van Niekirk advanced to the final, but only as one of the two athletes who qualified on time, as he finished third in 44.65 in the first semifinal.
In the women’s 400 hurdles, Rushell Clayton of Jamaica won the first heat in a personal best of 53.30, Femke Bol of the Netherlands took the second in 52.95, and Shamier Little of the U.S. placed first in the third in 52.81.
Dalilah Muhammad of the U.S. was a notable non-qualifier as she finished third in 54.19 in the second semifinal.
Muhammad, who has been slowed by COVID-19 and injuries over the past two seasons, won gold medals in the 2016 Olympic Games and 2019 World championships, silver medals in the 2017 World Championships and Olympic Games in 2021, and a bronze medal in the World Championships last year. She also set a pair of world records in the event and was selected as the Women’s Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News for the 2019 season.
All of the leading contenders in the women’s 100 hurdles advanced to the semifinals on Wednesday, but Keni Harrison of the U.S. appeared to run all-out in her heat and produced a stunningly fast 12.24 clocking.
The time was the second fastest of her career — behind her then-world record of 12.20 from 2016 — and tied for the fourth fastest in history.
The other heat winners were defending champion and world-record-holder Tobi Amusan of Nigeria (12.49), Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico (12.50), 2019 World champion Nia Ali of the U.S. (12.55), and Ackera Nugent of Jamaica (12.60), who won the NCAA title for the University of Arkansas in early June.
The second-fastest time of the heats came from Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas, who ran a national record of 12.44 to finish second behind Harrison in her heat.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya and Marco Arop of Canada had the fastest qualifying times in the first round of the men’s 800 with times of 1:44.92 and 1:45.05. But the biggest news out of the heats was that Emmanuel Korir and Ferguson Rotich of Kenya, and Peter Bol of Australia were eliminated.
Korir, the defending World and Olympic champion, finished fourth in the fifth of seven heats in 1:46.78 after being slowed by injuries for much of the season.
Rotich, the silver medalist in the Olympics, placed sixth in his heat in 1:46.53, and Bol, fourth in the Olympics and seventh in the World Championships last year, finished fifth in his heat in 1:46.75.