British fencer Natalia Sheppard suffered an extra-time defeat to a German at the European Games in Baku.
Sheppard progressed to the last 16 by winning four of her five pool encounters, with wins over Georgia's Teona Goglidze, Romania's Maria Boldor, Israel's Deilia Hatuel and France's Julie Huin all secured by a single point margin.
But she was the wrong side of that narrow scoreline in the women's foil first knockout round, losing 13-12 to Carolin Golubytskyi.
"She’s an opponent I’ve fenced about four times now and beaten once," said 31-year old Sheppard, a member of Team GB at the London Olympics.
"I think I can appreciate that I have fenced quite well, it’s an improvement on my last competition.
"It’s quite ironic that in the pool, the majority of my fights ended up on sudden death or last point and I won them all, only to then lose it on an important fight when I can’t progress any further."
Sheppard will now look to secure her place on a second British Olympic team and believes the experience of another multi-sport Games has been invaluable to that ambition.
"Baku has been an incredible opportunity for sports like ours which doesn’t generally get the village environment," she added.
"For us to come and practice before going out to the Olympics or any major championships, it’s been a great experience. Even though I’ve been to Olympics before, just to continue with preparations for the Olympics in Rio has been great."
© Sportsbeat 2015