Even Sally Conway herself failed to anticipate the form in which she began 2018.

Scotland’s top judoka made her first competitive appearance of the year at the Paris Grand Slam earlier this month and exceeded even her own expectations, taking victory in the -70kg category despite being ranked just 26th in the world ahead of the tournament. Conway defeated a string of the world’s best judo players along the way before taking out the current world champion and world number one Chizuru Arai from Japan in the final.

It was a remarkable performance from Conway – one of the best of her entire career – and it has provided the perfect platform for the 31-year-old going forward. “If you’d told me before Paris that I was going to win, I’m not sure I’d have believed you,” she said.

“I needed to have my best day ever if I was going to win and luckily everything worked out so I was so happy. And it’s such a huge confidence boost.”

Conway’s victory has set her up nicely for her second Grand Slam of the year, in Dusseldorf, which begins today. The Edinburgh fighter will, once again, be up against the best judoka in the world but her Paris victory has catapulted her up to thirteenth place in the world rankings and more importantly, she is brimming with confidence. “I’m really looking forward to this competition – I was so happy with how I fought in Paris and so hopefully I can do that again,” she said.

“What was so positive in Paris was that I was taking it one fight at a time, one exchange at a time and I wasn’t looking too far ahead so that really helped me a lot. If I can do that again, I’ll hopefully perform well.”

The Paris victory was exactly what Conway needed. Following her spectacular Olympic bronze medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016, Conway took a year out of the sport and returning to judo, which is far from gentle on one’s body, was not easy.

However, a six-week stint in Japan – which is the home of judo - at the tail-end of last year did Conway the world of good and she is, she feels, in something approaching the best shape of her life. But it is not only physically that she feels in top form – mentally, Conway believes that she is stronger than ever. “It was a long time to be in Japan but I felt like my judo came on leaps and bounds when I was out there - I felt really good and I felt really composed when I was fighting,” she said.

“The big difference is that mentally, I have the belief that I am good enough to be up there with these girls.

“Also tactically, I’ve made improvements. I’m very clear in myself now about how I’m going to fight each of the girls. At this level, you can’t give these girls anything - if you make a mistake, they’ll take advantage so quickly and similarly, if they make a mistake, I’ll take advantage of it. When you get to this level, everyone is good so that means there’s no room at all for error so it’s about minimising the mistakes and sticking to your game plan.”

Currently, all the buzz in Scottish sport is centred around the Commonwealth Games, which begin in Gold Coast in less than six weeks time. Conway was part of the Scottish judo team that dominated at Glasgow 2014, winning 13 medals and stealing much of the limelight.

But with judo having been omitted from the programme for this year’s Commonwealth Games, Conway must sit on the sidelines and watch her Team Scotland squad mates ramp up the excitement knowing that judo does not have the chance to replicate it’s stand-out performance at Glasgow 2014. “It’s really sad that judo isn’t in these Commonwealth Games,” she said. “After Glasgow, there was such a buzz around the sport and judo really caught people’s attention because we were so successful as a squad. The judo team’s success created some great publicity for the sport and it’s such a shame that we don’t have the chance to build on that.”

The omission from the programme also means that Conway does not have the opportunity to improve on her bronze from four years ago meaning that if she is to become Commonwealth champion, she must wait until the 2022 Games. She will be 35 by that point and while continuing for another four year cycle is not out the question, neither is it a given that she will retain both the motivation and the fitness that is required to remain one of the world’s best judoka. “I could be there in 2022 but you can’t plan too far ahead,” she said.

“It depends on what happens with life outside of judo and I also don’t know how my body is going to hold up. I wouldn’t it write 2022 off but I wouldn’t say anything for definite - I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow never mind in four years time so I’ll just wait and see.”