SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING Ohno easily advances to 500 meter quarterfinal

He's also part of the U.S. 5000 meter relay team which is also in the finals.
TURIN, Italy (AP) -- Apolo Anton Ohno had a short night at the short track. It was good enough to give him a shot at another medal.
Ohno safely advanced from his heat in the 500 meters Wednesday and will go to the final night of competition with two chances to add to the bronze he has already won at these Winter Olympics.
Even though he was heavily favored to move on, Ohno didn't take anything for granted in the shortest of short track events. His relief was apparent when he crossed the line, his right fist in the air and a big smile just above his soul patch. Forty-three seconds after the gun went off, he was done for the night. This was his only race.
"It's my last week of the games and it's been a long time since I enjoyed a 500 meters like that," he said.
The 23-year-old, who has the only American short track medal of these games, moved on to the quarterfinals of the 500 Saturday night. He's also part of the 5,000 relay team, which already qualified for the final.
Won heat easily
Ohno was third off the starting line, but he dipped inside coming off a turn to get past two skaters with less than two laps to go. He crossed the line comfortably ahead of Italy's Roberto Serra.
While clearly the most accomplished of the four skaters in his heat, Ohno was wary of Serra, who had the home crowd rooting him on, and Japan's Takafumi Nishitani, the 500 gold medalist at Nagano eight years ago.
"Every country has a good 500-meter skater, so everybody has a good start," Ohno said. "It's all about explosiveness."
Unlike the longer events, which often start out slow while the skaters set up their strategy and conserve energy, the 500 is basically an all-out sprint where the slightest slip can knock a skater out.
Won two medals last time
Four years ago in Salt Lake City, Ohno was taken out by a crash on the final turn of the 1,000, but still managed to crawl across the line for silver. Then, after finishing second again in the 1,500, he was bumped up to gold when a South Korean skater was disqualified for an illegal block.
In Ohno's first event of these Olympics, he bumped another skater from behind, nearly fell and wound up being eliminated in the semifinals of the 1,500. He settled for bronze in the 1,000 after South Korea's Lee Ho-suk made a brilliant pass for second place coming off the next-to-last turn.
Another U.S. skater, Anthony Lobello, crashed out of his 500 heat. The first-time Olympian from Tallahassee, Fla., was in second place when he got low coming through the turn, only to lose his edge and slam into the boards.
"I was on line and the ice broke out," Lobello said, meaning it cracked in a soft spot. "There's not anything I can do about it when the ice breaks out."
Ahn Hyun-soo of South Korea stayed on course for a short track sweep with a dominating victory in his 500 heat. He already has won the first two men's gold medals, and he'll go for two more Saturday.