'small competition' is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
Example: We had a small competition to see who could finish the project the fastest.
They had been, ironically, contenders alongside Taniguchi and others invited to a small competition for MOMA's 2004 expansion.
A few friends gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva and decided to engage in a small competition to see who could come up with the most terrifying tale — and the two great monsters of the modern age were born.
"There is a small competition to publish because the possible research fields are many, but the researchers are just a few, and very often they work in fields where they are not strong specialists, but only amateurs," says Badino.
"Training has been going amazing and I was really confident and just wanted to have fun seeing as it was just a small competition off a short approach and I did not taper for it.
"I think the football will end up as a very small competition with only three or four teams playing, but that's unfortunately the logistics and the costs of going over there," said Jacobs.
No small competition to run up against the State of the Union address, but Andy Borowitz and friends managed to fill New York's 92nd Street Y Wednesday night to the rafters.
This paper does not argue that Darwin's conception of small-scale competition within species is incorrect.
I started entering small competitions and I entered both categories.
Have small competitions with tangible rewards, even if it's just a free lunch, to get people excited about working their hardest.
Soon small-scale competitions were organized.
Even against smaller competition, Chamberlain had to fend off double- and triple-teams just to get open.
