Wales' Jasmine Hacker-Jones took the Commonwealth bronze medal in the women's -63kg at the Coventry Arena.
Maesteg-born Hacker-Jones, a student at Cardiff Metropolitan University, beat Cameroon's Audrey Jeannette Etoua Biock.
It was Wales' 12th medal of the games so far and their first in judo.
Canada's Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard took gold while England's Gemma Howell earned the silver.
Hacker-Jones almost gave up judo during lockdown but persevered after training with her partner.
“Lockdown was really difficult, I put on a lot of weight and lost sight of my goals,” she said prior to the games starting.
“But my boyfriend does MMA and we started training together. We bought some mats from Amazon and set them out in the garden.
“Every day we’d hit pads and do a bit of grappling when we could, and I really enjoyed it. Judo and wrestling are very different in some ways, and I managed to adapt to it.”
Earlier in the day, Wales clinched their second goal medal of the 2022 Commonwealth Games by defeating England in the men's pairs lawn bowls final.
Jarrad Breen and Daniel Salmon produced a sublime display to secure a 19-18 victory over English duo Jamie Walker and Sam Tolchard. Victory lifted Wales above Malaysia and Nigeria up to eighth place in the overall medals table.
