Vancouver / Canada

Charles Hamelin (CAN) won the 500m gold. Si-Bak Sung from Korea was second and François-Louis Tremblay (CAN) got bronze.

In the heats first was Ho-Suk Lee from Korea (41.632), then were Charles Hamelin (41.463) and Louis Tremblay (41.397), who both skated an Olympic record. They are the number 1 and 2 in the world respectively. Si-Bak Sung is the world record holder and number 3 in the world. Apolo Ohno (USA) was the defending Olympic champion. In the quarterfinals Hamelin improved the OR to 40:770.

Hamelin took the lead in the Final from the start, Sung followed ahead of Tremblay and Ohno was in last position. Soon Sung passed with two laps remaining and the Canadians followed. Tremblay and Sung fell. Hamelin was the first across the line, in 40.981, then Ohno, but the American was disqualified, Sung took second, Tremblay third. Ohno said he was a little disappointed because every race you want to be able to win a medal. “I thought I was going to snag another silver medal, but the referee saw it differently and it was out of my control.”

François-Louis Tremblay: “The day started with the Quarterfinals. It was not easy. Being fourth in line made it difficult to get a medal. There was someone very strong behind me and I had to sprint to the finish but he put me down. I wanted to grab my chance.” “I have five medals.

For world record holder Si-Bak Sung it’s his first Olympic medal: “After the first couple of competitions, I told myself to give it my all for the remaining competitions. Yesterday my coach told me that everything is in the hands of God. Without the prayer of my mother, everything would have been much harder. Too bad I slipped in the final corner.”

For Charles Hamelin, it was his first individual medal after the silver that he won with the team in 2006. “What a day! The finish was fantastic too when Sung fell in front of me, it was incredible.”