A tumble and an injury costs Jack

Short track is a sport where thrills and spills are guaranteed and, in Whelbourne’s case, it was a spill rather than a thrill.

He had progressed through the 1500m heats in textbook style, setting a British record in qualifying and then finishing only second to favourite, and eventual gold medallist, Charles Hamelin in his semi.

For a while it seemed like Great Britain could be celebrating an improbable second medal inside 24 hours in Sochi, with these Games only three days old.

Whelbourne, a former world junior champion who has struggled to capture his best form to date this season, was mixing it with the best when he started to make his move in the closing laps.

However, a loose block, which marks out the track, was kicked under his skate and he went spinning into the crash matting, clutching his ankle in pain with x-rays later confirming worse fears of a break were not realised.

“I don’t know what’s happening with my ankle now but I can’t have any complaints about my performance and reaching an Olympic final,”

he said.

“I just started to get involved with the racing and when I made my move a block went under my feet and it’s given me a bit of a twisted ankle.

“It’s quite a common accident in the sport, you have seven or eight people in a race with close overtakes and unfortunately it’s happened to me when I’m in my best form.

“I got a British record in the first race and I got a win under my belt, which is great for confidence.

“If I carry on skating like that there is no reason I can’t the same in the other two distances.

I surprised myself and I just need to keep a level head now.

“Whether my foot is bust, I want to skate the other two distances. I’m definitely getting back on the ice, if I can.”

Great Britain have not won a short track medal since 1994, when Nicky Gooch, now the team’s coach, won 500m bronze in Lillehammer.

But hopes are high for the five-strong team here, with Elise Christie and former Olympic finalist Jon Eley both also considering themselves medal contenders.

Christie watched and winced as her boyfriend Whelbourne was sent sprawling across the ice yesterday.

She had earlier progressed through her 500m heat with ease, showing the deft overtaking skills of fellow Scot Jackie Stewart to navigate her way to the finish line first and unscathed.

She will return to action in Thursday’s quarter-finals but it won’t get any easier, even with reigning champion and world record holder, China’s Wang Meng, absent through injury.

“This is a good chance to warm up and work on those weaknesses in a competition environment because the 500m is not so important to me. I’m very honest about using this a build into the other two events,” admitted Christie, last year’s world number one and the current European champion over 1000m.

“I had a lot more speed in me, I was being patient and just trying not to get knocked over. I’ve a lot more in the tank and there is a lot of racing to come.

“It’s been nice to get here and just get a feel for the environment.

You’ve got to get the tactics right on the day and I’m really pleased to nail it.”

Elsewhere, Chemmy Alcott claimed she was happy with a 16th place in the downhill element of the women’s super combined, pulling out of the slalom and using the event purely as a live practice run for tomorrow’s downhill.

And Great Britain’s curlers made a mixed start – David Murdoch’s rink beating hosts Russia but losing with an end to spare against world champions Sweden.

Eve Muirhead’s world champion team were also defeated by a Swedish rival as Margaretha Sigfridsson, who beat them in the recent European Championship final, struck an early blow in what promises to be a tight women’s competition.

UK Sport’s chief executive Liz Nicholl and performance director Simon Timson are out in Sochi checking on the near £14 million invested in this Olympic team, who can claim to have medal opportunities spread across six sports.

They have set a target of between three and seven medals – a big ask considering you need to go back 90 years for the last time Great Britain won four.

If UK Sport really wanted a big return on their investment they might consider speed skating.

Short track throws skaters onto an arena, sits back and waits for the carnage – it’s older more established rival gracefully pits them against the clock.

Holland have a team of 41 here in Sochi and more than half of them are speed skaters, the sport being something of a national obsession for the Dutch.

So far they’ve already won seven out of the nine available medals, including all three golds.

It means a country whose very name means ‘low land’ is now soaring at the top of the Winter Olympic medal table, completing their second clean sweep of the podium in yesterday’s 500m, won by Michel Mulder.

Great Britain invested heavily in track cycling and went from being also-rans to world beaters in just eight years, winning seven out of ten golds at the last two Olympics.

And there is great physical similarities between successful cyclists and skaters, five Olympic champion Eric Heiden raced competitively on the road and Canada’s Clara Hughes won Olympic medals in both sports.

So perhaps it’s time for UK Sport to invest in a speed skating oval, maybe even persuade Chris Hoy to come out of retirement and strap on the skates?