Work hard in effort to get medal (6)
I believe the answer is:
trophy
'medal' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'work hard in effort' is the wordplay.
'work' becomes 'op' (abbreviation for opus).
'hard' becomes 'h'.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'effort' becomes 'try' ('try' can be a synonym of 'effort'**).
'op'+'h'='oph'
'oph' inserted inside 'try' is 'TROPHY'.
'to get' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for trophy that I've seen before include "Prize, eg cup" , "Laurels" , "Prize or token of victory" , "Memento of success" , "Scalp, prize" .)