Mo Tae-Bum takes 500m speed skating Olympic gold

 MO Tae-Bum received the perfect birthday present by collecting South Korea's first ever Olympic speed skating 500m gold medal with a scintillating performance at the Richmond Olympic Oval Park.

BIRTHDAY BOY: South Korea's Mo Tae-Bum blitzes to 500m speed skating gold at the Richmond Olympic Oval (Getty Images)

The Korean celebrated his 21st birthday on Monday and romped to gold to celebrate, edging out Japanese duo Keiichiro Nagashima and Joji Kato.

Mo was lying in third place after the opening run, but he produced a blistering second skate to move into the lead, leaving only Kato and Finland's Mika Poutala standing between him and the top of the podium.

Both Kato and Poutala made flying starts to their second runs and edged ahead of Mo momentarily but the pressure got to both and a combined time of 69.82 seconds was good enough to hand the Korean victory.

"I can't feel anything yet," he said. I raced a lot better than expected in the first race. So it gave me courage to do better in the second race.

"I didn't watch the other athletes' race results before I went out to race. I think that's why I did better.

"I kept practising over and over again and I think that was very important.

"It's my best present and it's my present to Koreans."

Mo arrived in Vancouver as an outsider, ranked just 14th in the World Cup standings but it was the 21-year-old who produced the goods when it mattered.

Canadian skaters Jamie Gregg and Jeremy Wotherspoon flattered to deceive and despite encouraging first runs, they had to settle for eighth and ninth respectively.

Poutala meanwhile, despite leading at the halfway mark, ended up empty-handed and had to make do with fifth place.

The USA's Shani Davis, the defending champion over 1000m, opted against taking part in the second run, having placed 18th - in what served as a mere training run for the defence of his crown on Saturday. 

AS IT HAPPENS: Day four from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver