Shin grabs a silver
The fencer whose tears made her one of the faces of the Games will be going home with a real medal after all.
Last Updated: 04/08/12 10:32pm
The fencer whose tears last Monday made her one of the faces of these Olympics will be going home with a real medal after all.
But it was not quite the dream ending for Shin A Lam in the women's team epee at the ExCeL as South Korea were beaten to gold by China 39-25.
Even with a silver round her neck, however, the 25-year-old will surely not care now about the "special" medal offered to her by fencing's governing body because of what happened to her. She has the real thing, if not the colour she hoped for.
Shin was back competing five days on from being controversially denied a place in the final of the individual event after a clock was turned back from zero to one second and she then lost.
That had been bad enough for the world number nine, but heartbreak then turned to farcical scenes when she was told not to leave the piste for over an hour as protests and appeals were made on her behalf - all in vain.
She eventually went into a bronze medal match with world number one Sun Yujie, lost that as well - and it was Sun's 12-6 victory over her again tonight that settled the final.
Star performer
Before that Shin was shaping up to be the star of the competition, winning the
first seven of nine fights in the competition.
But she had nevertheless helped the Koreans to an incredible sixth fencing medal of London 2012, the same as Italy. Prior to the Games they had only ever claimed three in the sport.
China beat Germany and Russia to make the final, the second of those a 20-19 thriller won by Sun in sudden death.
Korea held them to 9-9 after four of the nine bouts, but Shin's loss to Xu Anqi started a big swing to the Chinese and they refused to let their opponents back.
Nobody could argue that Sun, Xu, Li Na and Luo Xiaojuan were not worthy winners.
The bronze medal contest, meanwhile, also went into a minute's sudden death after the United States and Russia tied 30-30 and Courtney Hurley produced the winning hit with 44 seconds remaining.
Hurley was competing along with sister Kelley, Maya Lawrence and Susie Scanlon.
Fencing finishes tomorrow with the men's team foil - Britain's last chance to salvage something. None of their 10-strong squad was able to reach the last 16 in the individual events and they will have to overcome top seeds Italy to reach the last four.
