Shin was tied with German Britta Heidemann in the semifinal match of the women’s individual épée when a clock error occurred.

The clock froze with one second remaining, allowing Heidemann a few extra seconds to score the winning point. Had the clock expired on time, they would have finished the round tied, and Shin would have advanced to the gold-medal match.

Instead, the officials met for a lengthy period of time, and when they emerged with a decision, they awarded the victory to Heidemann.

An understandably devastated Shin then sat on the bench for an hour, as leaving the arena would qualify as an acceptance of the decision. Eventually, her team submitted an appeal, which was effectively denied.

Shin was escorted out of the arena, only to return later to compete in the bronze medal match, which she lost to Yujie Sun of China.The crowd was then incredulous when just before 7.40pm - nearly an hour after the incident - that an announcer claimed that in the rules the Koreans had to lodge money for the appeal to be valid.