Olympics: The thrill and the agony

South Korea's Shin A Lam cries at the end of her Women's Epee semifinal bout against Germany's Britta Heidemann as part of the fencing event of London 2012 Olympic games, on July 30, 2012 at the ExCel centre in London.

The South Korean team lodged an official protest against the timekeeping as Shin's match with Heidemann was tied 5-5 in sudden death when - with one second left on the clock - the match was restarted four times as both players scored simultaneously each time, automatically stopping the clock. Heidemann appeared to score in the final second.

Had the match ended tied, Shin, who had been awarded priority under the rules, would have advanced to the gold-medal match. Competition rules forced Shin to wait on the fencing strip, leaving the South Korean crying before a crowd of 8,000, as officials spent an hour discussing the appeal, before announcing Heidemann was the victor.

"I think it's unfair because the one second was over," Shin said. "I should have won, so it's unfair."

Credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images