Level in competition? Almost (4)
I believe the answer is:
even
'level' is the definition.
(I know that level can be written as even)
'competition? almost' is the wordplay.
'competition?' becomes 'event' (sporting event).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (almost the whole word is kept).
'event' with its final letter taken off is 'EVEN'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for even that I've seen before include "Unvarying" , "Yet; level" , "Flattened" , "Like 2018 but not 2017" , "time of day" .)