Track athlete’s bizarre quarrel with timer (7-5)

'track athlete's' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.

'bizarre quarrel with timer' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'timer' is 'termi' which is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'quarrel' is 'quarler' which is present in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?