Sweden's Charlotte Kalla won the first cross country skiing gold medal of the Vancouver Winter Games on her Olympic debut with a rousing victory in the women's 10km freestyle event in Canada. The 22-year-old Kalla finished the two-circuit course in 24 minutes 58.4 seconds, edging out Estonian veteran Kristina Smigun by 6.6 seconds at an overcast Whistler Olympic Park. Norway's Marit Bjoergen, a renowned sprinter had to settle for the bronze. Mo Tae-bum of South Korea celebrated his 21st birthday by leading an Asian sweep of the medals by claiming the men's 500 metres speed skating gold at the Richmond Olympic Oval. The unheralded Mo, who burst onto the international scene with a brilliant display of speed and poise, clocked a combined time of 69.82 seconds for his two blistering runs. The silver went to Keiichiro Nagashima of Japan in 69.98, with his compatriot Joji Kato taking bronze in 70.01,three-hundredths of a second faster than Lee Kang-seok of South Korea.