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London 2012 fencing: Tearful appeal by South Korean delays finals

London 2012 fencing: After A Lam Shin of South Korea was defeated in overtime by German Britta Heidemann, she tearfully refused to leave the arena for 15 minutes, awaiting an appeal,

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Dmitry Lovetsky/AP
South Korea's Shin A-lam reacts after a women's individual epee fencing semifinals match against Germany's Britta Heidemann July 30, in London.
  • By Laura Edwins Contributor

No one ever said there's no crying in fencing.

The women's London 2012 fencing individual epee semi-finals took a dramatic – and emotional – turn this afternoon at the end of the match between South Korea and Germany.

The match between A Lam Shin of South Korea and Britta Heimann of Germany was deadlocked 5-5, when Heimann finally won 6-5 in overtime. 

South Korea contested Heimann's last point, saying that it was actually won after the end of the match, and submitted a written appeal to the judges. Meanwhile, Shin, refusing to leave ExCel stadium, sat weeping on the floor for more than 15 minutes while the judges ruled on the appeal.

South Korea lost the appeal.

But the appeal forced the gold medal match between Heimann and Ukrainian Yana Shemyakina to be delayed and then rescheduled to 3:40 p.m. (EDT).

The bronze medal match was also delayed, but not for long; Shin fenced against China's Yujie Sun but lost. Sun, who was ranked No. 1 in the world, took the bronze with a score of 15-11.

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