Australia's short track relay team has taken a major step towards the Torino Olympic Games after producing their best performance in two and a half years, finishing fifth in a World Cup event in Bormio, Italy.

The five-member team of Mark McNee, Stephen Lee, Alex McEwan, Lachlan Hay and Elliot Shriane also skated to Australia's first sub-seven minute time in the semi-final round.

The short track qualification for Torino is based on the combined results across the Bormio event and another World Cup next weekend in The Netherlands.

There are only seven relay places available at the Games, Italy taking the eighth place as host nation.

The Australians finished second to the US team in their opening heat, ousting Germany and Romania.

In the quarter final they again finished second, this time behind Canada, but ahead of main rivals for Olympic spots, Great Britain and The Netherlands.

In the semi-final, up against the powerhouse nations of Korea, Japan and the United States once again, they placed third, missing a place in the final, but collecting fifth place overall.

Korea went on to win the gold medal from China and the USA.

In the individual events, Mark McNee was the only Australian to produce a qualifying result, placing 20th - inside the crucial top 32 places - in the 1000m race.

In the women's events, Emily Rosemond had best placings of 39th in both the 500m and 1000m events, in a field of 71 skaters.

US skater Apolo Anton Ohno was the overall classification winner of the meet, with Sun-Yu Jin of Korea the women's classification winner.