London 2012 Fencing Update: Latest News on Finals and Semi-Finals – South Korea Tearfully Awaits Appeal

The latest news from the Olympics today involved something of an incident during the London 2012 fencing competition. In something less than good sportsmanship, South Korean fencing competitor A Lam Shin sat crying, refusing to leave the arena as she awaited an appeal for 15 minutes, after losing an overtime semi-final match to Germany’s Britta Heidemann.

The semi-final fencing match between South Korea (A Lam Shin) and Germany (Britta Heidemann) was a tie at 5 to 5 before going into an overtime faceoff. While Heimann prevailed 6-5 during the overtime, South Korea contested Germany’s last point with a written appeal. The Korean’s claimed that the tie-breaking point was scroed after the end of the match.

While awaiting the appeal something of a spectacle took place as South Korea’s Shin refused to leave the stadium while awaiting the results of the appeal. The drama was exacerbated by the fact that Shin was crying during the some 15 minutes that she sat waiting for the ruling.

South Korea eventually lost the appeal and the delay created by the appeal and the drama that ensued actually created a delay for the gold metal match between Germany’s Heimann and Ukrainian Yana Shemyakina.

Perhaps adding insult to injury, Shin went on to lost the for the Bronze medal in a fencing duel against China’s Yujie Sun. Although Sun had been ranked number one going into the 2012 Olympic Games Fencing Competition in London, in the end she settled for third place in the match against Shin with a final score of 15-11.