You’ll lose some competitions to people who were having a better day. That’s not unfair. That’s competition.

Competition compares performances on a particular afternoon, not people in general. Somebody slept well, warmed up right, caught the one break available, and that is enough to beat a better competitor on the day. Calling it unfair assumes the point is to rank talent, when the point is to rank what happened in the room. Everybody who competes also gets to be the one having the better day sometimes.

So keep the result separate from the read on yourself. Ask what your performance was actually like, independent of where you placed, and whether it beat your last one. That is the number you have some control over.