ANY QUESTION as to who would win the women’s discus was effectively settled on the fifth throw of the evening, when overwhelming favorite Valarie Allman launched her opening effort 216-11 (66.12). No other American woman has thrown as far in nearly 9 years.
The No. 1 American since the ’18 season, the Olympic gold medalist further vanquished anyone else’s dreams with her round 2 improvement to 222-0 (67.66). That would remain her best of the day but did not mean fans were deprived of excitement.
In 2nd after two throws, Lagi Tausaga had hit 203-10 (62.13) in round 1. She fouled in round 2, but in 3 improved to 205-7 (62.67), just after Allman had thrown a 208-6 (63.57). Rounding out the top 5 at the break were Elena Bruckner at 191-4 (58.33), Veronica Fraley at 187-10 (57.27) and Shelby Frank at 185-7 (56.58).
When action commenced in round 4, none of the finalists improved, and Allman fouled her effort into the cage. The next round saw an improvement to 189-11 (57.90) for Fraley, who remained in 4th. Allman again fouled, once more sending the platter into the net.
That led to the final stanza, and as the athletes worked through the order, again, no one hit a happy mark. That is, until Tausaga-Collins stepped up. The Iowa alum, 12th in the last two Worlds, was likely already assured of a Budapest spot due to her No. 10 WA ranking, but still lacked the assured comfort of having hit the qualifying standard of 210-7 (64.20).
She spun around the ring and released perfectly, then watched as her disc flew farther than ever before, landing at a PR 214-9 (65.46), moving to =No. 9 on the all-time U.S. list.
Tausaga couldn’t conceal her joy: “Man, I could have jumped a World Record the way I was jumping out there. It’s good to be good when you need to be good, you know what I’m saying?”
Said Allman, who closed with a 202-11 (61.84), “My last competition was the Stockholm Diamond League and it was pouring rain and I didn’t get a mark. It was actually the first competition in probably 5 years that this happened to me. It kind of shook my confidence. So coming in today, I felt a sense of nerves I hadn’t felt in a while.
“The national championships is always a special meet. You want to be at your best, you want to put on a good show… I’m excited to have that momentum keep going.”
WOMEN’S DISCUS RESULTS
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