Japan's men's 500-meter speedskaters were left wanting Monday, Daichi Yamanaka only managing fifth as Norway's Havard Lorentzen won gold at the Pyeongchang Winter Games.
Lorentzen, a three-time winner on the World Cup circuit this season, set a new Olympic-record time of 34.41 seconds for first place at Gangneung Oval.
Unheralded South Korean Cha Min-kyu had, two races earlier, matched the previous Olympic record with 34.42 but was pushed into silver and China's Gao Tingyu took the bronze in 34.65.
Yamanaka broke the timing beam in 34.78 while former 500 world-record holder and Vancouver Olympic bronze medalist Joji Kato was sixth.
Kato logged 34.831, just 0.008 of a second ahead of Sochi bronze medalist Ronald Mulder of the Netherlands. Tsubasa Hasegawa was 14th in 35.08.