TURIN, Italy -- Although his performance won't grab national headlines, Calgary's Arne Dankers did his part to get Canada off to a good start yesterday.

The 25-year-old long- track speed skater surprised many, including himself, yesterday by posting the best international showing of his career, finishing fifth in the men's 5,000-metre event.

"I'm pretty pumped about it," said the Ottawa-born Dankers who was an alternate at the Salt Lake City Games where he didn't skate.

"I'm really happy to have my best performance at the Olympics. I've been thinking about this race for a long time. I was a little bit anxious two days ago and kind of nervous but I was happy to start racing today."

A national record holder in the 5,000 event, Dankers' best finish on the 5,000 World Cup circuit was a sixth in Inzell, Germany last year.

"It was definitely the hardest race of my life -- my legs were blowing up," said Dankers, whose Day 1 performance came before moguls skier Jennifer Heil claimed Canada's first gold of the Games.

"It's really hard ice and I'm more of a glider, so this ice isn't suited for me. I knew it would be hard right off the bat. A lot of guys were starting out quick and just blowing up. So I knew it would be better to hold back a little bit and then attack at the end."

Helping Dankers through the race was his pairing partner Shani Davis, who forced the two to get off to a quick start.

"I figured he'd probably go out pretty hard," said Dankers who staged a late comeback to beat the American head-to-head.

"Our last two laps, I kind of attacked him and beat him there."

American Chad Hedrick won the gold in 6:14.68, finishing ahead of Dutch skater Sven Kramer and Italy's Enrico Fabris. A long distance specialist who is a medal threat in the Team pursuit, Dankers finished three seconds out of the medals with a time of 6:21.26.

He races in the pursuit event Wednesday and the 1,500m and 10,000m events next week.

Red Deer's Steven Elm finished 22nd and Regina's Justin Warsylewicz was 24th.