Britain's Elise Christie was left without a medal in the 500m short-track skating on Thursday, despite crossing the line in second place. She was penalised for causing two other skaters to fall over in a chaotic final and ended up being given an automatic placing of eighth.

Christie, who was visibly upset after the race, thought the incident was a "50-50" call by the referee, but with no appeal or protest allowed, she had to accept the decision and will now have to regroup before her two other events – the 1,000m and 1500m. She does not have long, with the 1500m heats coming on Saturday.

Christie attributed the collision to her desire to go for gold and not just settle for a podium placing: "One of things about the way I race is that I can't hold back, and had I just sat in third maybe I'd have a medal right now. But unfortunately my instincts don't allow me to do that and I just try to win the race."

Christie knocked over the Italian Arianna Fontana as she attempted to get past her on the inside on the second turn of the race, and as the two of them fell they combined to bring down the Korean Park Seung-hi. The Chinese skater Li Jianrou avoided the pile-up to take the gold medal with ease, and Christie's second-placed finish was voided, with Fontana taking silver and Park the bronze.

"I thought I had more speed so I moved up while I could," said Christie, speaking before she watched a replay of the collision. "I knew it was going to be a 50-50 call. When I was in the race I thought I was in front, I thought it was more going to go my way than not, but obviously it didn't and that's that."

Christie's coach, Nick Gooch, said he thought the skater was unlucky to be penalised. "For me, as she entered the corner she was level with the Italian and the Italian closed the door and knocked her off her feet. The referee sees it that Elise caused the crash by moving into that space when there wasn't space … Whether you agree or disagree is irrelevant, because the referee makes the decision, and you cant appeal [against] it or do anything about it … She's racing to win and we encourage our athletes to take those risks."

Gooch said Christie was "gutted" but that the focus now is on preparing her psychologically for the next races. "It gets very close and it gets very physical sometimes, and that's what makes the sport so exciting, what makes it so mentally tough and physically tough to cope with."

Christie, who is considered to be strongest in the 1,000m, did well to make the final here, and was helped by the absence of some strong medal contenders. Wang Meng of China, the world record holder in this event and 500m gold medallist at the past two Olympics, was ruled out of the games in mid-January after breaking her ankle during a collision in training. Her compatriot Fan Kexin, who has won two of the past three world championships at the distance, was regarded as the favourite in Sochi, but came unstuck in a semi-final fall.

Christie came through her quarter-final easily, finishing in second place behind Fan, and she won her semi-final as Fan slipped and fell around the half-way point.

"With it being my weakest distance I was quite happy to have just got there," said Christie afterwards. "I probably just need a day to get over it all."

In between Christie's races, the Iceberg Skating Palace also held the heats for the men's 1,000m, where Christie's boyfriend, Jack Whelbourne, narrowly missed out on qualification. He was edged into third place in a tightly contested heat, during which the positions were changing all the way through.

Despite a burst of speed on the final lap, Whelbourne could not quite catch up with the second-placed US skater, Eduardo Alvarez, who edged him out of a qualifying spot by 0.016 seconds. The gold medallist at 1500m, Canada's Charles Hamelin, came first in the heat.

Whelbourne reached the final of the 1500m on Monday but fell after skating into a marker block on the course. He had therefore been off the ice since that fall, and does not yet have an official diagnosis of the ankle injury. He said he will take a couple of days off before the 500m heats on Tuesday.

In the other 1,000m heats on Thursday, there was plenty for the home crowd to cheer as Vladimir Grigoriev, Semen Elistratov and medal hope Viktor An all qualified for the quarter finals.