Cursed Elise Christie crashes out of 1500m; stretchered from arena with injury

The Briton was battling for second place and a place in the final, but collided with China's Li Jinyu and slammed into the barriers at the edge of the track. Race officials adjudged the collision Christie's fault and reinstated Li to the A final.

It was a shocking denouement to a race in which Christie fell behind before surging through in the final few laps and appeared to have under control; but in her efforts to beat Li to second place she provoked the fateful contact.

She could pay a particularly heavy price, as she appeared to injure her ankle in the impact with the wall, and was stretchered out of the Gangneung Ice Arena and taken to hospital for an X-ray.

It was Christie's second bitter disappointment of the week, after she on the final lap of the 500m final. She was disqualified from all three events in which she competed four years ago in Sochi. Her boyfriend, Hungary's Shaolin Sandor Liu, crashed in the men's 1000m final.

If she is fit, Christie's final chance of a medal comes in the 1000m on Tuesday.

South Korea's Choi Minjeong won gold for the host nation, while Li recovered from her collision with Christie to take silver.

Earlier, Charlotte Gilmartin slipped up with six laps to go as she crashed into the barriers in her semi-final.

Gilmartin had qualified from the heats with a third place finish but her team mate Kathryn Thomson fell short in the heats.

And in the men's competition, Farrell Treacy was well behind the pack as he failed to advance from the quarter-final stage.