Elise Christie misses out on a medal in the short track 500m final, Farrell Treacy qualifies for the quarter-finals of the 1000m while at the cross-country skiing, Andrew Young finishes 45th in the individual men’s sprint classic.
- Elise Christie places fourth in the 500m final after suffering a fall on the final lap
- Also in the session, Farrell Treacy qualifies for Saturday’s 1000m quarter-finals but Joshua Cheetham misses out
- Cross-country skier Andrew Young opens his PyeongChang 2018 campaign by placing 45th in the individual men’s sprint classic
- Laura Deas, Lizzy Yarnold and Dom Parsons all post fastest times in training for the women’s and men’s skeleton competitions
Short track speed skating
Elise Christie missed out on a medal after she crashed during the Olympic 500m short track speed skating final in PyeongChang.
Christie had set a new Olympic record in her quarter-final but was edged into second in her semi-final.
In the final, Christie was fourth at the first corner but waited patiently to move into the medal positions before coming in close contact with Dutch skater Yara van Kerkhof and falling on the final lap.
Italy’s Arianna Fontana took gold while Van Kerkhof was promoted to silver after home skater Choi Min-jeong was disqualified. Canada’s Kim Boutin completed the podium.
“I was knocked over, I didn’t fall on my own,” said the triple world champion.
“It’s just tough, I worked so hard. It has been taken away from me. Even in the semi final I got crashed into and ended up in lane four. It is short track and I am supposed to be prepared for this but it hurts.
“Hopefully I can come back again. I can reset and it’s almost a week until my best distance.”
Meanwhile Farrell Treacy put his 1500m disappointment behind him to qualify for Saturday’s 1000m quarter-finals – his favoured event.
The 22-year-old finished second behind the USA’s John-Henry Krueger in the opening heat although fellow Brit Joshua Cheetham missed out on his Olympic debut after placing third in his heat.
“It’s nice to get a good solid run after how the 1500m went. I just wanted to get through to the next round so that’s good,” said Farrell.
“On Saturday I will have blown the cobwebs away. I’ll be a lot calmer and hopefully I can pull something out of the bag. This is my distance so I feel calm and comfortable here.”
Cross-country skiing
Andrew Young opened his PyeongChang 2018 campaign with a 45th-place finish in the men’s individual sprint classic.
The three-time Olympian clocked a time of 3:21.50 which was outside of the top 30 required to progress through the competition.
He will now turn his attentions to Friday’s 15km individual free event, which will also feature Andrew Musgrave and Callum Smith.
“I feel like I pushed hard and pushed well the whole way through the race but ended up a long way behind,” he said.
“That’s just how it goes. I will keep on working and training for the next one.”
Skeleton
Team GB continued to show encouraging signs ahead of the PyeongChang skeleton competitions as Laura Deas, Lizzy Yarnold and Dom Parsons all topped the time sheets today.
In women’s training, Deas was quickest on the third run while Olympic champion Yarnold did likewise on the fourth.
Parsons was also the man to beat on the men’s third heat, going three hundredths of a second faster than home favourite Yun Sungbin.
What to watch tomorrow…
Team GB’s curlers open their respective men’s and women’s campaigns with Kyle Smith’s rink taking on Switzerland at 09:05 (12:05am UK time) and Canada at 20:05 (11:05am UK time).
Eve Muirhead’s rink play against Olympic Athletes from Russia at 14:05 (05:05am UK time).
Elsewhere alpine skiers Alex Tilley and Charlie Guest will contest the women’s slalom with the first run starting at 10:15 (01:00am UK time) and Amanda Lightfoot goes in the biathlon women’s 15km at 20:05 (11:05am).
Report courtesy of Team GB
