NOTTINGHAM trio Jon Eley, Jack Whelbourne and Elise Christie all failed to deliver a medal for Britain on the opening day of the ISU European Short Track Speed Skating Championships in the Czech Republic.

Eley and Whelbourne both impressed on the way to reaching the men’s 1500m final however they could do little to prevent the Netherlands and Russia dominating the medal race.

Dutch skater Sjinkie Knegt upgraded the 1500m silver he won 12 months ago to gold, comfortably coming home first in 2:15.303minutes with Russian Semen Elistratov taking silver.

And Knegt’s teammate Niels Kerstholt ensured it was two Dutch faces on the podium and not two Russian edging out Evgenii Kozulin to win bronze in Mlada Boleslav.

Meanwhile Eley, who’s preferred 500m comes on Saturday, trailed home behind Vladislav Bykanov of Isreal for sixth with Whelbourne one place further behind in seventh.

That was a position shared by British teammate Christie in the women’s 1500m final as Arianna Fontana continued her dominance of the distance at the European Championships.

The Italian two-time Olympic bronze medallist was in inspired form crossing home first in the final to claim her third successive European 1500m crown by almost half a second.

She clocked 2:28.082 to Dutch skater Jorien Ter Mors’ 2:28.567 while bronze went to Fontana’s Italian teammate Martina Valcepina with Christie way behind seventh.

However the much-fancied men’s British 5000m relay team of Whelbourne, Richard Shoebridge, Paul Stanley and Ian Upcott ensured the day ended on a high as they qualified for Saturday’s semi-finals.

© Sportsbeat 2012