diff --git a/test-normalizer.sed b/test-normalizer.sed
index b9452d67c94f5d02bc6d1f93f38e50f91987a1e1..5221291174810d3d1d8fc7c7faee6efa9d6cdf53 100644
--- a/test-normalizer.sed
+++ b/test-normalizer.sed
@@ -6,5 +6,5 @@ s/subgoal/goal/g
 /^File/d
 # extra space removed in https://github.com/coq/coq/pull/16130
 s/= $/=/
-# coq/coq#16208 (this regex deletes an empty line followed by the "uses section variable" line)
-/^$/{N;/.* uses section variable.*/d}
+# delete "uses section variable" lines (https://github.com/coq/coq/pull/16208)
+/^[^ ]+ uses section variables? .*\.$/d