Melanie Woods didn't flinch. When the starting gun fired for the second time in less than two days, the Scottish wheelchair racer from Glasgow shot to the front and never looked back, defending her 1500m T54 title with the same fierce determination that had won her the gold in the first place.
The race should never have been run twice. But when officials decided a crash on the first lap of Wednesday's final had unfairly affected the results, they ordered a do-over — and Woods showed up anyway, in front of her hometown crowd at the Commonwealth Games, and won all over again.
She set a new Games record the first time. On Thursday morning, she broke it again.
"In my heart, the gold was already mine," Woods said after crossing the line, "but it's nice to have it around my neck now."
The race was close. Noemi Alphonse of Mauritius and Australia's Eliza Ault-Connell pushed Woods hard through the early laps. But by the final 200 metres, only Alphonse remained in contention. Woods held her off, the home crowd roaring her down the straight.
England's Ellis Kottas, who had finished second in Wednesday's race, said she was "low-key traumatised" when the result was overturned. In the rematch, she came fourth.
For Woods, this moment is the result of years of hard work since a life-changing accident. In 2018, she was hit by a car while riding her bike. She has used a wheelchair ever since. Now, just six years later, she is a Commonwealth Games champion — twice.
Woods doesn't plan to stop there. She is scheduled to race in the 400m on Friday morning, with heats starting about 90 minutes after Thursday's replayed final wrapped up. She has less than two hours to rest, recover, and do it all again.
But if Thursday showed anything, it's that Melanie Woods knows how to handle a challenge.