Fencer here. There are several questions on HN, so I'll explain the rules that led to this. A normal bout goes for nine minutes or until someone scores 15 touc

Fencer here. There are several questions on HN, so I'll explain the rules that led to this. A normal bout goes for nine minutes or until someone scores 15 touches. In this case, time expired with a score of 5-5. In the event of a tie, one fencer is randomly selected to have "priority" and the bout resumes in sudden death for one minute. Whoever scores in that minute wins. However, if time expires again, then the fencer with priority is declared the winner by default. The reason for priority is to force one competitor to be the attacker. Epee fencing in particular favors defense, which is why the score is routinely so low. The priority rule is a way of preventing passivity in overtime. For this bout, the Korean fencer was given priority. The clock ran down to one second and the two fencers "doubled", meaning they hit simultaneously. In overtime, a double touch is annulled; nobody scores. The clock had one second remaining, so the bout resumed. The fencers doubled again. But oddly enough the clock still had one second listed! So the fencers had to try it again. They immediately doubled. At this point, it looked like the clock had run to zero, and it really isn't clear what was actually happening with the time keeper. Eventually, the referee reset the clock back to one second! Finally, the German fencer scored a single touch and was declared the victor. The appeal from the Korean team is that the clock should never have been reset to one second; the numerous double touches beforehand had been more than a second long. The committee that overseas the referee (the Directoire Technique) refused to overrule. From personal experience, the DT never overrules. At any rate, the entire fencing community is really upset about this. Many of us were routing for Korea today in the team women's epee event because of this.