Defending Olympic champion Hiroyasu Shimizu faltered at the start of the first leg of the men's 500-meter speedskating event Monday, but still emerged with a second-place time of 34.61 seconds at the 19th Olympic Winter Games.
Shimizu, however, may need to renew his own world record of 34.32 records in the second leg of the event Tuesday if he is to catch America's Casey FitzRandolph, who posted the day's fastest time of 34.42 seconds.
The 500 meters is raced twice, with each skater having the chance to start in the inside lane and the outside lane and the winner being determined by the aggregate time of the two races.
In an unexpected development, world sprint champion Jeremy Wotherspoon of Canada stumbled and fell at the start of the final heat and did not finish the race.