Judo star Conway out to exorcise ghosts of 2012

It was the tiniest of errors that propelled Sally Conway out of London 2012 but it felt like a huge door had slammed in her face.

It did not matter that her conqueror was a double Olympic medallist. After spending hour after hour on the judo mat, trying to reduce the margin for mistakes to the point of invisibility, it took almost 12 months for the pain in her heart — and the sting in her injured shoulder — to completely fade away.

‘Looking back,’ the 29-year-old (right) whispers, ‘maybe that wasn’t my time.’ The despair quickly lifts. ‘Maybe,’ she adds, ‘this is my time.’

In exactly 24 days, Conway will walk out into the Carioca Arena and attempt to rewrite her Olympic history.

The quest has been four years in the making, a spell that saw her take a bronze for Scotland in the 70 kilogramme division at the 2014 Commonwealth Games before confirming her status as a potential medallist in Brazil with third place at the Paris Grand Slam in February.

However, nothing that awaits at her second Olympics will match the raw energy from the crowd in 2012 which energised the home contingent.

‘I remember the first day of the Games when the lightweights were fighting,’ Conway recounts. ‘We went down for a look. Ashley McKenzie came into the mat and everyone was stamping his or her feet. The noise made you catch your breath.

‘If I can qualify for an Olympic Games, what’s to say I can’t do something special?’

The answer will come soon. Five fights between her and glory. Five hours from first round to last, to learn if the journey that began with that bitter second-round exit four years ago will end, this time, with opening that golden door.