Elise Christie safely negotiated her first heat of the women’s 500m short-track at the Gangneung Ice Arena on Saturday night as she looks to shake off her triple disqualification nightmare from Sochi.
The 27-year-old led from start to finish ahead of China’s Chunyu Qu and briefly set an Olympic record time of 42.872 — although her mark was later beaten by South Korean Minjeong Chong.
Christie said: “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so nervous on the start line.
“You can’t avoid the fact you’re at an Olympics — there are rings everywhere. So I’m just glad I got the first one out of the way.”
Christie’s team-mates Charlotte Gilmartin and Kat Thomson both crashed out early, as did Pharrell Treacy in the heats of the men’s 1500m.
The host nation grabbed their first gold of the Games amid deafening cheers at the Gangneung Ice Arena as Hyojun Lim won a dramatic nine-man final ahead of Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands.
Great Britain’s snowboarders suffered further bad luck as Jamie Nicholls, Billy Morgan and Rowan Coultas all failed to qualify for the final of the men’s snowboard slopestyle.
With only the top six from each heat moving through to Sunday’s final, Nicholls and Morgan finished eighth and 10th respectively while Coultas fell on both of his runs in his first Olympics.
Nicholls said: “I felt so confident — the right mindset, feeling really good about my snowboarding, better that I have throughout my whole career. You only get two runs and if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”
Norway’s Marit Bjoergen made Winter Olympic history with a silver medal in the women’s cross-country skiathlon which made her the most decorated female athlete in Winter Games history, with 11 medals to her name.
Britain’s Annika Taylor placed 60th out of the 61 finishers while Amanda Lightfoot finished 67th in the women’s 7.5km sprint, which meant she missed out on a place in Monday’s team pursuit.
British lugers AJ Rosen and Rupert Staudinger stand 24th and 33rd respectively at the half-way point of the men’s luge competition which is set to conclude on Sunday.
In an historic ice hockey match there was no dream start for the unified Korean team, who were beaten 8-0 by Switzerland at the Kwandong Hockey Centre despite the best efforts of the watching North Korean Cheerleading Squad.
Collated 2018 Winter Olympics day one results
BIATHLON
Women’s 7.5km Sprint: 1 Laura Dahlmeier (Ger) 21mins 06.2secs, 2 Marte Olsbu (Nor)21:30.4, 3 Veronika Vitkova (Cze)21:32.0, 4 Marie Dorin Habert (Fra)21:39.3, 5 Vanessa Hinz (Ger)21:46.5, 6 Lisa Vittozzi (Ita)21:46.7, 7 Hanna Oeberg (Swe)21:47.0, 8 Irene Cadurisch (Swi)21:51.7, 9 Darya Domracheva (Blr)21:52.4, 10 Justine Braisaz (Fra) 21:54.1
Selected Other: 67 Amanda Lightfoot (Gbr) 24:15.3
CURLING
Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 5: China 6 USA 4, Norway 7 Finland 6, Canada 7 Switzerland 2, South Korea 5 OAR 6
Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 6: OAR 2 Canada 8, South Korea 5 OAR 6, Norway 3 USA 10, Finland 5 China 10, Switzerland 6 South Korea 4
ICE HOCKEY
Women’s Preliminary Round — Group B, Game 1: Japan 1 Sweden 2
Women’s Preliminary Round — Group B, Game 2: Switzerland 8 Korea 0
CROSS-COUNTRY
Ladies’ 7.5km + 7.5km Skiathlon: 1 Charlotte Kalla (Swe) 40mins 44.9secs, 2 Marit Bjoergen (Nor) 40:52.7, 3 Krista Parmakoski (Fin) 40:55.0, 4 Ebba Andersson (Swe) 40:55.8, 5 Jessica Diggins (USA) 40:59.6, 6 Nathalie von Siebenthal (Sui) 41:02.5, 7 Teresa Stadlober (Aut) 41:11.5, 8 Natalia Nepryaeva Natalia (Oar) 41:17.9, 9 Heidi Weng (Nor) 41:25.6, 10 Stina Nilsson (Swe) 41:33.8
LUGE
Leading Positions after Men’s Singles Run 1: 1 David Gleirscher (Aut) 47.652secs, 2 Felix Loch (Ger) 47.674, 3 Johannes Ludwig (Ger) 47.764, 4 Roman Repilov (OAR) 47.776, 5 Chris Mazdzer (USA) 47.800, 6 Kristers Aparjods (Lat) 47.822, 7 Jozef Ninis (Svk) 47.833, 8 Kevin Fischnaller (Ita) 47.853, 9 Sam Edney (Can) 47.862, 10 Dominik Fischnaller (ITA) 47.930
Selected Others: 25 Adam Rosen (Gbr) 48.477, 33 Rupert Staudinger (Gbr) 49.626
Leading Positions after Men’s Singles Run 2: 1 Felix Loch (Ger) 1mins 35.299secs, 2 David Gleirscher (Aut) 1:35.487, 3 Roman Repilov (OAR) 1:35.516, 4 Chris Mazdzer (USA) 1:35.517, 5 Sam Edney (Can) 1:35.617, 6 Kevin Fischnaller (Ita) 1:35.646, 7 Kristers Aparjods (Lat) 1:35.656, 8 Johannes Ludwig (Ger) 1:35.704, 9 Wolfgang Kindl (Aut) 1:35.813, 10 Reid Watts (Can) 1:35.855
Selected Others: 24 Adam Rosen (Gbr) 1:36.887, 33 Rupert Staudinger (Gbr) 1:38.885
SNOWBOARD
Men’s Slopestyle
Qualification Heat 1: 1 Marcus Kleveland 83.71pts Q (Nor), 2 Carlos Garcia Knight 80.10 Q (Nzl), 3 Sebastian Toutant 78.01 Q (Can), 4 Mans Roisland 76.50 Q (Nor), 5 Torgeir Bergrem 75.45 Q (Nor), 6 Niklas Mattson 73.53 Q (Swe), 7 Roope Tonteri 72.60 (Fin), 8 Jamie Nicholls 71.56 (Gbr), 9 Chris Corning 70.85 (USA), 10 Peetu Piiroinen 69.26 (Fin), 11 Vlad Khadarin 64.16 (OAR), 12 Sebbe De Buck 59.4 (Bel), 13 Rene Rinnekangas 37.91 (Fin), 14 Michael Schaerer 37.61 (Swi), 15 Kalle Jarvilehto 31.1 (Fin), 16 Moritz Thoenen 23.55 (Swi), 17 Ryan Stassel 23.5 (USA), 18 Lee Minsik DNS (Kor), 19 Niek Van Der Velden DNS (Ned)
Qualification Heat 2: 1 Max Parrot 87.36pts Q (Can) , 2 Mark Mcmorris 86.83 Q (Can), 3 Redmond Gerard 82.55 Q (USA), 4 Staale Sandbech 82.13 Q (Nor), 5 Tyler Nicholson 79.21 Q (Can), 6 Seppe Smits 78.36 Q (Bel), 7 Clemens Millauer 77.45 (Aut), 8 Yuri Okubo 75.05 (Jpn), 9 Jonas Boesiger 58.26 (Swi), 10 Billy Morgan 56.40 (Gbr), 11 Kyle Mack 53.55 (USA), 12 Matias Schmitt 50.86 (Arg), 13 Mans Hedberg 46.25 (Swe), 14 Hiroaki Kunitake 43.16 (Jpn), 15 Petr Horak 41.93 (Cze), 16 Nicolas Huber 36.9 (Swi), 17 Stef Vandeweyer 33.75 (Bel), 18 Rowan Coultas 23.58 (Gbr)
SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING
Men’s 1500m Final A: 1 Hyojun Lim (Kor) 2mins 10.485secs (OR), 2 Sjinkie Knegt (Ned) 2:10.555, 3 Semen Elistratov (OAR) 2:10.687, 4 Samuel Girard (Can) 2:11.176, 5 Shaolin Sandor Liu (Hun) 2:11.520, 6 Itzhak de Laat (Ned) 2:12.362, 7 Thibaut Fauconnet (Fra) 2:53.150, DNF: Daeheon Hwang (Kor), Pen: Charles Hamelin (Can)
Ladies’ 500m Heat 2: 1 Arianna Fontana (Ita) 43.214secs, 2 Andrea Keszler (Hun) 43.274, 3 Kathryn Thomson (Gbr) 1:08.896, DNF: Suzanne Schulting (Ned)
Ladies’ 500m Heat 4: 1 Elise Christie (Gbr) 42.872secs, 2 Chunyu Qu (Chn) 42.971, 3 Suk Hee Shim (Kor) 43.048, 4 Veronique Pierron (Fra) 43.148
Ladies’ 500m Heat 8: 1 Min Jeong Choi (Kor) 42.870secs, 2 Petra Jaszapati (Hun) 55.641, 3 Emina Malagich (OAR) 56.808, Pen: Charlotte Gilmartin (Gbr) 1:16.036
SKI JUMPING
Men’s Normal Hill Individual Final: 1 Andreas Wellinger (Ger) 259.3pts, 2 Johann Andre Forfang (Nor) 250.9, 3 Robert Johansson (Nor) 249.7, 4 Kamil Stoch (Pol) 249.3, 5 Stefan Hula (Pol) 248.8, 6 Daniel Andre Tande (Nor) 242.3, 7 Ryoyu Kobayashi (Jpn) 240.8, 8 Markus Eisenbichler (Ger) 240.2, 9 Richard Freitag (Ger) 240.0, 10 Karl Geiger (Ger) 236.7
SPEED SKATING
Ladies’ 3,000m: 1 Carlijn Achtereeekte (Ned) 3mins 59.21secs, 2 Ireen Wust (Ned) 3:59.29, 3 Antoinette de Jong (Ned) 4:00.02, 4 Martina Sablikova (Cze) 4:00.54, 5 Miho Takagi (Jpn) 4:01.35, 6 Ivanie Blondin (Can) 4:04.14, 7 Isabelle Weidemann (Can) 4:04.26, 8 Ayano Sato (Jpn) 4:04.35, 9 Claudia Pechstein (Ger) 4:04.49, 10 Natalia Voronina (OAR) 4:05.85
