The beautiful thing about track and field is that your one true challenger is the clock or measuring tape.
But in the case of Sydney McLaughlin, the clock really is her only challenger.
The 22-year-old American lined up for the medal race in the women's 400 meter hurdles on Friday night at the World Athletics Championships with the second- and third-fastest women in history also running — and she left them in her wake.
Already the world record holder, McLaughlin didn't just lower that time, she utterly smashed it, running 50.68 seconds for gold. She won by more than one-and-a-half seconds, unheard of at this level of sprinting.