A WIN in the last second has clinched Thornbury Olympian Sally Conway a fantastic bronze medal in her final competition before the Judo European Championships.

Conway, who took bronze in the Rio 2016 Olympics before going on to claim gold earlier this year at the prestigious Paris Grand Slam was competing at the Antalya Grand Prix ahead of taking on the rest of Europe in Tel Aviv, Israel later this month.

It was an accomplished day of judo from Conway, 31, who edged out Hungary's World number 16 Szabina Gerscak in the bronze medal bout in dramatic fashion, forcing a submission with just one second remaining.

The opening round saw her sweep aside Jovana Pekovic from Montenegro in under 30 seconds, with Canada's Kelita Zupancic offering a more even match in the quarter finals, reversing a move to force Conway to tap out.

This dropped the former Marlwood student into the repechage where she came up against Ireland's Megan Fletcher and, keen to make amends for her loss earlier in the day, she controlled the gripping exchange throughout.

Halfway through the contest, Conway was able to catch Fletcher, unbalance her and looked to secure an arm lock from the resulting fall. The move came to nothing but points awarded from the takedown were enough to secure the win, taking her to the bronze medal match against Gerscak.

"I wasn't feeling my best today and had to dig deep for the wins," Conway said following her victory.

"I now have two weeks of final preparation before the European Championships to get myself contest sharp and feeling good."

Her coach, Kate Howey, added "Sally was a bit slow today but it shows that on a not-so-good day, she can still perform and achieve a great result."

"This is all part of Sally's preparations for the Europeans in two weeks’ time, where she will be at her best."