updated 11:13 a.m. ET Nov. 20, 2005

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Apolo Anton Ohno failed to reach the finals of the 500 meters Saturday, threatening his chances of holding the lead for the overall World Cup title.

Ahn Hyun-soo of South Korea won the 500, his second World Cup event in as many days, taking the lead in the final lap to beat Li JiaJun of China and American J.P. Kepka.

Ohno, of the United States, also failed to reach the finals of the 1,500 Friday when he damaged a skating blade on dirty ice. Ahn won the event, making him the favorite to take the World Cup title on Sunday at the last qualifying tournament before the Turin Olympics.

Ohno won Olympic gold in the 1,500 and silver in the 1,000 at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

In the women’s 500, Wang Meng of China edged Evgenia Radanova of Bulgaria and Kalyna Roberge of Canada.

The team relays and the 1,000 are the final events on Sunday. The U.S. team qualified its men’s and women’s relay squads for the Turin Olympics by reaching the final.

“It’s been a pretty good day with the qualification in the relays and J.P.’s performance,” said team leader Derrick Campbell.

After three solid World Cup outings, Ohno has stumbled. He won two events at the World Cup event last week in Bormio, Italy.

On Saturday, Ohno was in the outside lane, with little chance of getting a good position on the vital first corner.

“The lane didn’t work out for him,” Campbell said.

Even with his acceleration and racing savvy, the 23-year-old couldn’t fight back into the top two over the 4½ laps at the Uithof oval.

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In the Hague, skaters have complained about dirty ice, which damages the edge of their blades. Unless that edge is perfectly sharp, the skaters lose grip and control on the tight corners of the oval.

A maximum of three skaters from each team can compete in individual events in Turin. All need to finish in the top eight in the combined standings of this weekend’s event and last weekend’s meet.

Teams can take two skaters if they finish in the top 32 of the combined meets.

Canada, China and South Korea stand a realistic chance of having three skaters qualifying in some events, while the United States and leading European nations probably will have two in most races.