Australian short track speed skater Brendan Corey's hopes of emulating Steve Bradbury's Olympic heroics have ended with him crashing out in the quarter-finals of the men's 1000m.
Corey attempted a gutsy move from third to make a top two qualifying position on the final corner in the race, but took out two of his rivals in the five-man race at Beijing's Capital Indoor Stadium
He was penalised after interfering with Dutch skater Itzhak de Laat and local hope Ren Ziwei, with the official review deeming a "lane change causing contact".
The quarter-final was won by Turkey's Furkan Akar while the Dutch and Chinese skater also advanced.
Ziwei went on to take the gold medal in a controversial final.
Having been restarted mid-race to remove metal debris on the ice and repair a rough spot it appeared to be won by Hungary's Liu Shaolin Sandor, who has a Chinese father.
However, after several minutes adjudication via video by the referee Liu was penalized twice and earned a yellow card. That elevated Ren Ziwei of China, who crossed second, to the gold medal.
Li Wenlong of China earned silver. Liu Shaoang took bronze.
Corey, who has family in Australia, started racing for his adopted country in 2020 after previously representing Canada at youth level.
He had met an Australian coach at an international competition and decided to make the change when a concussion in 2019 meant Corey was unable to skate for Canada.
The 25-year-old had been in sparkling form heading into the second round of competition, clocking one minute 23.908 seconds - an Australian record - to finish second in the eighth and final heat on Saturday night.
He will have another medal chance in the 500m later in the week.
Bradbury won Australia's first Winter Olympics gold medal at the 2002 Games in the 1000m, crossing the line first after all the other finalists crashed in front of him on the last corner.