No medal for fencer despite 75 minute protest

South Korean fencer Shin A Lam left the ExCeL arena without a medal last night, but with the sympathies of everyone in the crowd after one of the biggest controversies fencing has ever seen.

The world number 12 had thought she was through to the final when, to her horror and that of her coach Shim Jaesung, the clock was reset from zero to one second.

The score was 5-5 at the time, but that would have been good enough for the 25-year-old under the rule where one fencer is awarded “priority” when a contest goes into sudden death.

But when the action resumed under the instruction of Austrian referee Barbara Csar, German Britta Heidemann scored a do-or-die hit that eventually — after officials watched replay after replay and then went into huddles — put her through to face Ukraine’s Yana Shemyakina in the final.

At one point, the audience could hardly believe their ears when they were told that International Fencing Federation rules required the Koreans to lodge money — an unspecified amount — before the formal appeal could be heard.

A distraught Shin never left the stage throughout, the crowd having been told that to leave the piste would be an acceptance of defeat.

The furious Korean coach launched an appeal against the decision that had allowed the fight to continue after the clock changed.

Still Shin remained on the piste, bringing back memories of compatriot Byun Jong-il’s sit-down strike during the boxing in Seoul in 1988 following a penalty for headbutting.

The difference was that Shin was an innocent.

The bronze medal match and the final both had to be put back while the appeal went on, but almost 75 minutes later Shin was led off.

Amazingly, she was back on a few minutes later for the bronze medal match, but from 11-11 with under two minutes left, she lost to world number one Sun Yujie 15-11.

In the final, Shemyakina defeated Heidemann in a bout that included a minute’s extra time when they tied 8-8. It was Shemyakina who achieved the decisive hit as the fight headed into the last 30 seconds — with Heidemann this time needing only to see out time.