Great Britain’s men’s short track speed skating relay team made up for missing out on last month’s Winter Olympics by taking World Championship bronze as Elise Christie agonisingly missed out on a second medal on the final day.
Britain’s men’s 5000m relay squad of Jon Eley, Jack Whelbourne, Paul Stanley, Richard Shoebridge and Josh Cheetham couldn’t do enough before the turn of the year to book a place among the top eight nations that skated at Sochi 2014.
But with the likes of Eley determined to potentially finish his career on a high with his teammates, some of which didn’t qualify to skate individually at the Winter Olympics, Britain stormed to world bronze on the final day in Montreal.
The final quartet of Eley, Whelbourne, Stanley and Shoebridge finished third behind winners the Netherlands and silver medallists Korea in a time of 6:52.716 minutes with Russia, boasting triple Olympic champion Victor An, fourth.
Whelbourne even crossed the finish line on his backside but it didn’t matter however there was to be no second medal for Christie, who claimed 500m silver on Saturday, earlier on the final day as she placed fourth in her preferred 1000m.
Still a silver, a fourth and a fifth in the 1500m marks an incredible show of character from Christie, who won world 1000m bronze last year, after she was penalised all three of her individual races at the Winter Olympics last month.
She was also seventh in the 3000m superfinal while teammate Charlotte Gilmartin reached the heats in the 1000m and Whelbourne and Shoebridge the quarter-finals of the men’s equivalent before the late relay drama.
© Sportsbeat 2014