Elise Christie's coach Nicky Gooch has leapt to the defence of the Team GB athlete after her disqualification in the Olympic women's short track speed skating 1500m heats, saying that he "was really shocked" upon hearing of the decision.
The 23-year-old was judged to have gone inside the centre line before finishing the 1500m race earlier this morning, making it the second event in the space of two days where Christie has been disqualified, after being stripped of a silver medal in the 500m event on Thursday.
Short track coach Gooch told BBC Sport : "The referee said Elise didn't cross the line. Where the finish line crosses the track, she crossed inside that line. The judge ruled she was off track and that means officially she hasn't finished the race.
"The top three qualified, she'd done nothing wrong. She tried to win the race because there is a benefit to that and the referee has called it off track.
"I've seen it called before but it doesn't happen normally and I was really shocked. I've looked at the video and we're talking centimetres here. To the letter of the law it's probably right but she's clearly qualified through that race but the rules say you can't be inside the line."
The Livingston-born skater will be back in action next week in the 1000m event.
Giuseppe Labellarte
