Almost the winner as 100 waste very little time (5,6)

'almost the winner' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.

'100 waste very little time' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'100' could be 'c' (Roman numeral) and 'c' is found in the answer.
'waste' could be 'lose' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'lose' is found within the answer.
'time' could be 'second' (unit of time) and 'second' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'as' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?