Olympics - women's fencing. Oh dear.

[kevo]

Incredible scenes. Losing fencer refuses to leave for over an hour as referees and officials argue about who won.

How can a second last longer than three 'encounters'? Even the last one was longer than a second... Can't believe they don't use a proper timing system!

BBC Sport - Olympics fencing: Tearful Shin Lam denied chance at gold

BBC Sport - London 2012 Olympics

(from 50 minutes in)

 

[GingerBeerMan]

What a load of shit, I see where he's coming from. Harsh.

 

[kevo]

Something the commentators missed - the clock was still showing 00:01 after the contest had finished... And why was it reset when it did go down to zero? That 'second' lasted at least 2, probably 3 seconds.

 

[DavePage]

was her medal bid foiled?

 

[El Presidente]

was her medal bid foiled?

She must be cut up about it.

 

[Medwayseagull]

As consolation she can always apply to be an extra in the next re-make of the three musketeers.

 

[R. Slicker]

She won't be épée about that.

 

[Seagull58]

Incredible scenes. Losing fencer refuses to leave for over an hour as referees and officials argue about who won.

How can a second last longer than three 'encounters'? Even the last one was longer than a second... Can't believe they don't use a proper timing system!

BBC Sport - Olympics fencing: Tearful Shin Lam denied chance at gold

BBC Sport - London 2012 Olympics

(from 50 minutes in)

Watching this last night I think she was hard done by. It seems they had 3 encounters that lasted for a total of zero seconds.

 

[Notters]

Well if I were her, I'd be looking for lancers.

 

[Simster]

Appalling time keeping by the judge. You spend four years training and lose because of some muppet not being able to count one second. f***ing shambles.

 

[KZNSeagull]

Apparently, someone other than the referee is in charge of timing. So when the ref says "onguard, fence" or whatever, someone else has to start the clock. Simple solution is to give the clock to the ref, surely.

In the spirit of the Olympics, the last second of the match should have been replayed. It is about the taking part, not the winning, afterall.

Edit - it should be replayed in the spirit of sportsmanship actually - nothing to do with the Olympics.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Appalling time keeping by the judge. You spend four years training and lose because of some muppet not being able to count one second. f***ing shambles.

Possibly. (I have not watched the clip, as iPad won't play it). it's equally likely that the timekeeping official stopped the clock when they felt was the appropriate moment, but that the referee over-ruled it, and asked that the clock be changed.

I know very little of fencing specifically, but in other sports where a separate official is responsible for refereeing and for controlling the clock (water polo, for example), it's common for the ref to ask for the clock to be adjusted - most particularly in sports where the moment the clock should be paused is subjective.

 

[Poyetry In Motion]

She should've used Postcrete. She'd never have problems with fencing again...

< gets taxi >

 

[Franks Wild Years]

I was sat in the stands while this was going on. Really odd, she was sat on the side of the piste sobbing her heart out, a small hunched white clad figure in the middle of the 'tron'esque surroundings. Every time there was an explanation of what was going on she got loads of applause and cheers and this went on for an hour or so, when the judges led her off everyone boo'd them, people were shouting 'wankers wankers'. As her and her coach walked out people stood and applauded them. Really was on of the oddest things Ive ever witnessed.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I was sat in the stands while this was going on. Really odd, she was sat on the side of the piste sobbing her heart out, a small hunched white clad figure in the middle of the 'tron'esque surroundings. Every time there was an explanation of what was going on she got loads of applause and cheers and this went on for an hour or so, when the judges led her off everyone boo'd them, people were shouting 'wankers wankers'. As her and her coach walked out people stood and applauded them. Really was on of the oddest things Ive ever witnessed.

Apparently, apart from being upset, she thought if she left the stage whilst the protests were going on, she would be barred from competing for the bronzze. She did the right thing.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Can't believe they don't use a proper timing system!

What is it that you would like, to consider it 'proper'.

The systems will time accurately to 1/100 of a second, but when the time starts and stops in a subjective sport is entirely in the hands of the sport official tasked with controlling it.

If the timing of all sports could be fully automated (as they are in swimming, canoing, etc) the Official Timekeeper (Omega) would be very happy.

As an aside, the new system Omega are using for the swimming, will measure accurately to 1/10'000 of a second, yet the rules of the sport only allow timekeeping to 1/100. Thus last night you had a shared silver medal when the two swimmers finished in the same 1/100, when if permitted, Omega could have split them.

This fencing incident seems really harsh, and something doesn't look right, but don't blindly blame the technology.

 

[Franks Wild Years]

Apparently, apart from being upset, she thought if she left the stage whilst the protests were going on, she would be barred from competing for the bronzze. She did the right thing.

Thats right, theme the rules apparently.

 

[TheJasperCo]

I hope that's not the end of her Korea.

 

[kevo]

Apparently, apart from being upset, she thought if she left the stage whilst the protests were going on, she would be barred from competing for the bronzze. She did the right thing.

I think it meant that should would be conceeding the contest if she left. So all the time the appeal was going on (75 minutes!) she had to remain out there. Really strange.

The explanation for the cock up in the timings is the delay between when the referee tells them to fence and when the timekeeper starts the clock. When a hit occurs and the encounter finishes, the clock is stopped automatically. Because of the human delay, it's possible for the clock to barely start at all before the encounter is finished. One simple solution would be to give the ref the clock or replace it with a buzzer or some automatic system. It's madness that in a sport where it can take a fraction of a second to decide a contest, the timing is only calculated in whole seconds.

I also think that logic would tell you that three encounters cannot possibly last less than a second (the final one alone was longer), so they should have replayed the sudden death period - but I guess that's not in the 'rules'.

It was also farcical that you had about 10 officials heatedly discussing the incident for over an hour with seemingly no formal process to deal with a dispute like this.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

Shes been stabbed in the back.