Britain’s Elise Christie was dramatically disqualified from the silver medal position after a chaotic final of the 500metres short-track speed skating which saw three of the four racers sent sprawling across the ice.
As she crossed the line at the Iceberg Skating Palace, Christie already looked resigned to her fate and it did not take long for the judges to decide that the Briton was at fault for the crash, reducing her to tears.
It meant the three remaining skaters all found themselves on the podium despite the efforts of Christie’s coach, Nick Gooch, to persuade the judges otherwise. Gooch is the last Briton to win an Olympic short-track medal — in Lillehammer in 1994 — although with Christie’s best event to come that record could come under serious threat next week.
Racing in a crisp white Team GB top, Christie was drawn in lane three. The 500m is the shortest event and, as they career around a tight course at up to 30mph, crashes are all but inevitable. Christie is a front-runner, a tactic designed to keep her out of trouble, and as the quartet rounded the second corner, she bolted down the back straight and appeared to cut across Arianna Fontana of Italy. Both women hit the ice and took Korea’s Park Seung-Hi with them. It left China’s Li Jianrou to stroll towards gold.
Behind her the other three scrambled back to their feet and raced for the finish before attention turned to the judges.
“I had the speed so I moved up, but I was hit on the foot and then hit everyone else,” said the 23‑year-old from Livingston in Scotland. “It was a 50/50 call but everyone has different opinions. There was a little gap, and I knew I had more speed at that point. I used my instinct and went for it. Now I am regretting it.”
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This was the first time Christie — whose boyfriend Jack Whelbourne crashed out of the final of the 1,500m on Monday — has reached a 500m final at a major event. It is the weakest of her three races — her next is the 1,500m on Saturday with her main event, the 1,000m at which she is European champion and a world championships medallist, a week tomorrow.
Despite the dramatic and painful end to her 500m, her form in reaching the final through three rounds of heats will offer her and Gooch encouragement for what is to come.
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