Team GB star punished as Winter Olympics medal race result changed | Other | Sport

Team GB speed skater Niall Treacy finished sixth in the short track men’s 1500m final, but the position was removed because he was penalised for a collision that took him and two other competitors down. That decision by the referee meant Treacy dropped to ninth in Saturday’s expanded final, which featured two additional athletes after collisions during the semi-finals.

The Brit finished almost 40 seconds ahead of the seventh-placed Shoaong Liu of China, who was one of the skaters who crashed into him, while another Chinese competitor, Long Sun, failed to finish due to injury and needed assistance when leaving the ice. Jens van ‘T Wout of the Netherlands won gold in a sport they continue to dominate, with Korea’s Hwang Daehoen and Latvia’s Roberts Kruzbergs completing the podium.

The former Team GB skater Wilf O’Reilly was expecting a medal from Treacy. He said on the BBC’s coverage: “The winner of this race was always going to be the person who could stay out of trouble, but unfortunately, Niall Treacy had a collision. That is disappointing for him because he was skating so well – I was really expecting him to get on the podium.”

Treacy kept his calm afterwards as he broke down the incident that cost him a chance at a medal, simply saying he did not see those behind him because of the focus on keeping pace with those in front. He led the race at one stage after coming around the outside, as he did to win the third semi-final, but dropped back to third before going down on the ice.

A lengthy review was launched after the race, with the decision to remove Treacy’s position, much to the dismay of Team GB fans who were up in arms on social media.

Speaking to TNT Sports, the British athlete said: “It’s not the result that you want when you go to the final. I was skating really well, and I’ve only seen the review quickly, but I didn’t see the guy; I felt like I was still trying to build speed, I had got two of the best guys in front of me, so I was actually trying to set up to go back past them because I felt like I was in a really good position from today, I feel really strong.

“If you told me at the start of the day, ‘you’re gonna be in an Olympic Game final,’ maybe I wouldn’t have believed you, so yeah, it’s not the result, but I’m really proud of what I did today, hopefully, the guys back home in the sport, and the people watching were proud because, yeah, I had fun today.”

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Treacy continued: “Every race that you come into at an Olympics is absolutely solid, the fields right now are just so strong. We’re coming into each race, and we go ‘right, top two it doesn’t matter what it is, it’s top two, so just get top two.’ So the quarter-finals felt like a final for me, the semi-finals felt like a final, so that’s why I was just over the moon.

“All my family are here, so to have it with them is just, yeah, it was just amazing. It would’ve been nice to finish it off, but I’m proud of what I did.”

He also called for more support from higher up after being the only short-track speed skater for Team GB at these Games. Treacy said: “From a short track speed skating point in the UK I would love if we could have a bit more support from a higher up level.

“I think four years ago we got to a final, here we got to a final, we can prove that with the limited resources that we’ve got, we’re competing against these teams, the best teams in the world, and I think it’s just a testament that we have so much talent in the UK, and I think we need to capitalise on that a little bit better than what we are doing, so that’s why it was maybe a little bit difficult coming out here by myself.” Treacy concluded: It’s not bad from skating in Solihull to skating in Milan.”

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