World junior bronze medallist Jack Whelbourne (pictured) fell with four of the 45 laps remaining in the relay semi-final as he attempted to close on the two nations in the qualifying places, Canada and the United States.

The 19-year-old had made a huge contribution to getting Britain into contention, but lost control on a turn.

He and his colleagues – Eley, Paul Stanley and Richard Shoebridge – had to resign themselves to missing a final where they had high hopes of doing even better than their unexpected performance in the B final at last month's World Cup meeting in Germany.

Eley, a 26-year-old former European champion and Olympic finalist, appeared to have had his blade kicked by the skater to his right, Xianwei Liu of China, as the 500m field of four got into its stride, and he tumbled to the ice in a race that was won by the eventual gold medallist, 19-year-old Simon Cho of the United States.

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