Hawaiian discus queen springs golden surprise

Discus throw is a game of centimeters. So when Laulauga Tausaga launched a throw that beat her personal best by more than four meters at the world championships to win the title in Budapest, she stunned the crowd - and herself.

"I just screamed," Tausaga said about the throw that made her the first American woman to win a world title in discus. "I don't know how to contain this emotion."

Tausaga took the gold medal with a fifth-round throw of 69.49 meters, beating her old mark by a whopping 4.03 meters. That throw took her past teammate and world leader Valarie Allman. Last year's winner, China's Feng Bin, finished third.

"I don't know if I have a fairy godmother or something, or my ancestors had some say in it, but I was able to do something that I didn't think was possible yet," the 25-year-old Tausaga said. "No one was expecting me and I just showed up."

Tausaga was born on Oahu, moved to San Diego when she was seven and then picked Iowa for college because, she said, it was "time for me to get, you know, locked in in a snowstorm."

The Hawaii native, who is part Samoan, said she was pained to see the devastation that happened to Maui during recent fires that destroyed the town of Lahaina and killed more than 100 people with hundreds still missing.

"I'm constantly praying for them," she said. "Pacific Islanders stick together."

Growing up, Tausaga "just wanted to stay home and be a bookworm," but her mother pushed her into sports.

She started with volleyball, but that didn't stick. Then, basketball, but she didn't have the speed. Tausaga started throwing shot put in high school, which was her ticket to college. At Iowa, she started throwing the discus, which was her ticket to Budapest and the gold medal.