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Stevenson: Bronze
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Sarah Stevenson took bronze in the +67kg taekwondo after an extraordinary day of drama in Beijing.
Stevenson had originally lost her quarter-final defeat to world number one Zhong Chen of China in what was described as 'blatant robbery'.
But an appeal by the British team was successful in persuading the judges to make the unprecedented move of over-turning the decision.
Amid a storm of boos from irate Chinese supporters Stevenson, suffering an ankle injury and with only 10 minutes to prepare instead of the usual 40, was beaten 4-1 by Mexico's Maria Espinoza in the semi-final.
But the 25-year-old bounced back strongly to defeat Egyptian Nowa Abd Rabo 5-1 in the bronze medal match to become Britain's first ever Olympic taekwondo medallist.
Speaking to the BBC afterwards she said; "I am really happy. I tried really hard to be ready but it was really difficult. I wasn't ready."
"But when I finished I was happy because I got the bronze. I sort of knew I wasn't ready to win but got the bronze.
"I've had lots of injections (ankle) and it's really sore. I struggled but I'm really happy. I was really tired."
Sportsmanship
British Taekwondo performance director Gary Hall paid tribute to the Chinese for an extraordinary display of sportsmanship that saw the earlier result reversed.
"It was very sporting of the Chinese team to say it wasn't right and it needed overturning," he said.
"Them agreeing to it was the right thing to do and you have to take your hat off to Zhong Chen.
"She's been Olympic champion twice and she gave up the slot like that."
But Hall added that the incident may have contributed in no small way to Stevenson's failure to reach the final, which saw Espinoza lift the gold with a 3-1 victory over Norway's Nina Solheim.
"It was really tough," he added. "The team worked hard around her to help her stay as focused as she could in the circumstances but obviously she had quite a lot of emotion to deal with.
"The energy to get yourself up for this is pretty tough and you don't prepare for this amount of stress. You expect fair and honest decisions. We had them in this case, but we've also had our share of bad luck.
"It's a shame really because Sarah has clearly beaten both girls who were in the final this year."
