Korea dominated the first gold medal event at Palavela (Day 2) finishing 1st and 2nd in the Men’s 1500m short track.

Reigning world champion, Hyun-Soo Ahn overpowered countryman Ho-Suk Lee with a paralysing closing sprint.Competing in his third Olympics, China’s JiaJun Li took bronze.

Sensation prevailed in the semi-finals when US defending gold medallist Apolo Anton Ohno came to grief inside the second last lap, blowing his path to the final.

Comfortably in second place behind Li, Ohno appeared to try an unnecessary pass but was too far forward on his skates and tumbled.

“I don’t know if we (Li) had contact or the ice fell away,” said Ohno.

“It sucks but I still want to walk away with that perfect race. There are more opportunities to get on the podium.”

Australia’s Mark McNee failed to progress beyond the qualifying round and finished 22nd. He skated an excellent tactical race but didn’t have the legs when it counted.

McNee will be better suited in the 5000m relay and the 1000m which start on 15 February (Day 5).

In the women’s 500m heats, four-time Olympian Evgenia Radanova of Bulgaria looked in awesome shape and emerged as one of the favourites. She was the silver medallist at Salt Lake City (2002).

Current world champion, 17-year-old Sun-Yu Jin from Korea, also skated beautifully but the real heroine on the night was 15-year-old Italian Adriana Fontana who qualified for the quarter-finals on 15 February (Day 5).

Semi-finals of the women’s 3000m relay produced spectacular racing with China and Canada through in the first race and Korea and Italy qualifying in the second.

The final will be contested on 22 February (Day 12) at Palavela.

Gordon Bray/AOC
Torino