updated 6:09 p.m. ET Feb. 26, 2006

TURIN, Italy - Leading from start to finish, Apolo Anton Ohno made this another Olympics to remember when he upset favored South Korean Ahn Hyun-soo to win the gold medal in 500-meter short track speedskating Saturday night.

After two false starts by other skaters, Ohno anticipated the gun perfectly and broke away from the line clear of the other four finalists. He led the entire way and didn’t have to worry about Ahn, who got caught up behind two Canadians, Francois-Louis Tremblay and Eric Bedard.

Ohno looked back once, threw up his arms and let out a scream when he crossed the line first. He jumped into the arms of a U.S. coach and grabbed an American flag for the victory lap.

Showing there were no hard feelings from Salt Lake City, Ahn came over to shake Ohno’s hand in the middle of the rink.

Tremblay held on for second while Ahn passed Bedard to claim the bronze. The South Korean became the first skater to win three individual medals in short track, but he fell short of three golds after winning the 1,000 and 1,500.

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As for Ohno, he grabbed the fourth Olympic medal of his career — and added a fifth later in the evening with a bronze in the 5,000-meter relay. Ohno was one of the most feted athletes at the Salt Lake City Games, where he won a gold and a silver in thrilling races.

At Turin, Ohno failed to qualify for the final of the 1,500 and settled for bronze in the 1,000, falling into the category of high-profile Americans who appeared to be falling short of expectations.

Though there was nothing controversial about Ohno’s gold-medal win, he did get some help from the judges earlier in the night. He appeared to finish third in the semifinals — which wouldn’t have been good enough to advance. But he moved on when China’s Li Jiajun, a veteran of four Olympics, was disqualified for impeding another skater.

Battling for the lead, Li and Ohno clashed in a turn with two laps to go, nearly sending the American into the padding.

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Men's 5,000-meter relay
Ahn Hyun-soo led South Korea to its sixth gold medal in eight short-track speedskating events, winning the 5,000-meter relay in an Olympic record time Saturday night.

Canada took silver and the United States, with Apolo Anton Ohno, bronze.

In a spectacular race to end the tournament, Canada and South Korea exchanged the lead several times over the 45-lap race on the tight skating rink. The Canadians and South Koreans even briefly stumbled into each other with barely two laps to go.

That left the work to Ahn.

Confident under pressure, he took back the lead from Canada’s Mathieu Turcotte. He crossed the line in a time of 6 minutes, 43.376 seconds and with a rare show of celebration.

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Ahn pumped his fists, high-fived his teammates and joined them on their knees. They then bowed to the Korean fans in the stands. Barely showing expression on other occasions, Ahn was all smiles. It was his third gold of these games. He also won a bronze, finishing third to Ohno in the 500 meters earlier Saturday.

This was a two-team race after the midpoint, with the Americans vying with the Italian hosts for bronze.

The six gold medals overall was the best ever showing for the Koreans, two more than their previous best four years ago.

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