You can lose the competition and still win the skill. Judges only score the day.

A result and a capability are different objects, and only one of them goes home with you. Judges score a single performance under particular conditions, so a placing describes an afternoon rather than what you can now do. The skill you built getting ready does not get handed back when the scores are read out. It stays, and it is what you really came for.

After the next result, good or bad, write down two things you can do now that you could not in the spring. Then enter something else. The scoreboard is on loan and the ability is yours.