Highlight in low light

 The athletic feat of the week, probably of all the weeks so far in 2022, happened in Eugene, Ore., the other day. But if you blinked you likely missed it. 

This is because it didn't happen in baseball or pickup summer basketball (And what is The Basketball Tournament, anyway?) or Premier League soccer. . It didn't even happen in NASCAR or the WNBA or the annual NFL Reporting To Training Camp extravaganza.

It happened in track and field.

Women's track and field, which the male-centric Sportsball viewing public tends to pay even less attention to than men's track and field.

What happened was a woman named Sydney McLaughlin broke her own world record in the 400-meter hurdles at the World Track and Field Championships, becoming the first woman ever to go under 51 seconds with a time of 50.83. That time would have been good for seventh place in the 400-meter final. And she did it while clearing 10 hurdles.

Here's what her final few yards looked like. And note that the runners she's completely left behind are all elite 400-meter hurdlers themselves, no matter how much it looks as if she's running against a bunch of fifth graders.

Should have been the highlight of the week. And yet, it was a highlight in low light, sort of.

ESPN, one of the primary arbiters for such things, didn't even make it the Play of the Day. Instead it chose a bunch of minor-league baseball highlights and the like, while placing McLaughlin's feat  in the 10th and last "oh, yeah, and this" spot on its daily list.

Ridiculous. And no matter, because it says here you won't see a more astounding athletic performance this year.

You just won't.