THORNBURY’S Olympic star Sally Conway’s world championship campaign has come to an early end, with a shock defeat in the last 16.

Conway, who took bronze last year at the Rio Olympics, was thrown to the matt by Puerto Rican judoka Maria Perez in the opening seconds of the bout, with Perez earning an unassailable Ippon score.

The 30-year-old former Marlwood student had a confident start to the tournament, quickly seeing off Elisavet Teltsidou from Greece and Dutch fighter Sanne Van Duke in her first two rounds of pool B, before the shock loss to Perez.

Having taken several months off after the Olympics, Conway made a fantastic return to the season with silver medals in the -70kg category at the Bucharest European Open and the Cancun Grand Prix, where she beat the current world number 1, Venezuelan Elvismar Rodriguez.