LONDON, July 31: Sports cliches are easy to come by, but nail-biting does not begin to sum up the women’s individual epee matches on Monday.

Yana Shemyakina of Ukraine beat defending champion Britta Heidemann of Germany 9-8 to win the Olympic gold medal — but not before an hour-long delay in the semi-finals following an appeal by the South Korean team after Heidemann’s 6-5 victory over Shin A-lam.

At its heart, Shin and Heidemann played three times for the winning point, each time with just one second left on the clock. The referees eventually called in favour of the German athlete.

Shin returned minutes after the decision to face top-seeded Sun Yujie of China for bronze. After an early lead, Shin collapsed, lost 15-11 and left the auditorium without a medal.—AP