Sally Conway had to settle for seventh place on the second day of the 2014 European Judo Championships in Montpellier.

Edinburgh-based athlete Conway (-70kg), originally from Bristol, began with a dominant win over Irina Gazieva of Russia. She threw Gazieva for a yuko early in the contest, adding a waza-ari score and another yuko to progress to the quarter-final.

Great Britian’s top world ranked athlete then went on to face home athlete Fanny Posvite and just a single yuko score separated the pair after four minutes in the Frenchwoman’s favour, dropping Conway in the repechage.

The repechage put her up against former European U23 silver medallist Barbara Matic. The match was tight with neither judoka managing to impose themselves on the contest and a single shido for Conway was enough to see the Croatian athlete through to the bronze medal fight and Conway in seventh.

Megan Fletcher of Wokingham, who trains at Bath, competed in the same weight category. After a tight contest, she lost out by two shidos to twice European bronze medallist Juliane Robra of Switzerland.

Looking back at the day, Great Britain Olympic Women’s Coach Kate Howey, said: “On another day Sally would have been fighting for a medal. Her preparation had been great and both her and Megan fought well in all their contests.

“At this level, the margins and competition is so tight that small decisions make all the difference and we’re disappointed that despite putting in strong performances, we’ve not come away with better results.”

Tomorrow (Saturday) sees Natalie Powell fight in the -78kg category. Action gets underway at 11:00 CET (10:00 BST) with updates available through Twitter @BritishJudo and live streaming at www.ippon.tv.