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KEARNS, Utah (AP) -- Apolo Anton Ohno found no room to make his customary late charge and finished third in the men's 1,500-meter final at the short-track speedskating World Cup on Sunday.
Ohno was sealed off on the final two laps by the top two finishers, South Korea's Lee Jung-su, who finished in 2 minutes, 17.941 seconds, and runner-up Lee Ho-suk (2:17.966).
Ohno, a five-time Olympic medalist and defending world champion, could only shake his head after he realized that victory was out of reach with a half-lap to go. He finished third.
"There was room. I made a little bit of a slight hesitation, but it's early," said Ohno, who also anchored the U.S. 5,000-meter relay team's second-place finish Sunday. "It's the very first World Cup of the season. I positioned myself right, came back from the fall yesterday, and was able to get on the podium twice today. I think I'm right where I need to be -- within striking distance."
Although third place in the 1,500 was disappointing, it was still an improvement over Ohno's first race of the season. He crashed Saturday night when he lost an edge in the 1,000-meter final at the Utah Olympic Oval.
South Korea swept the men's races on Sunday. Sung Si-bak won the 500-meters and the Koreans set a world record in the 5,000-meter relay (6:38.486).
In Sunday's other finals, world champion Wang Meng added the women's 500-meter title to her 1,000-meter victory Saturday. Wang, the world-record holder in the 500, swept the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters at the World Championships last spring.
Wang also anchored China's winning 3,000-meter relay team, which finished a half-second faster than South Korea.
In the women's 1,500 meters, Shin Sae-bom of South Korea edged China's Zhou Yang at the line and won in 2:21.03 -- 0.23 seconds faster than Zhou.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-10-19-08 2000MDT
