Kodaira continues 500m dominance at Berlin World Cup

Olympic silver medallist Kodaira was untouchable on Friday, crossing the line in 37.43 to beat her rivals by 0.69 seconds.

Karolina Erbanova was second with Russia's Olga Fatkulina third but it was Kodaira who took the maximum 100 points to move back into the lead in the World Cup standings on 500 points.

Previous leader Jing Yu dropped down to second on 452 points after missing the Berlin race.

Kodaira may be the 500m sprint queen this season but she has been overshadowed by Heather Bergsma in the 1000m.

The American picked up her fourth gold over the distance on Friday although she was made to work hard for it after Kodaira set the bar at 1:15.49 in the penultimate pair.

But Bersgma held her nerve against Kodaira's compatriot Miho Takagi to finish fastest by 0.07 seconds, with Jorien ter Mors picking up the bronze for the Netherlands in 1:15.62.

Bergsma leads the 1000m standings on 400 points with Takagi moving onto 326 in second.

In the men's races, Nico Ihle delighted the home crowd by winning the men's 500m race at the Sportforum.

Only two men finished under 35 seconds with Japan's Yuma Murakami setting the bar at 34.97 in the fourth pair before Ihle beat him with 34.83 in the fifth pair.

None of the ten skaters who followed managed to come close with Dutchman Jan Smeekens taking the bronze in 35.02.

Pavel Kulizhnikov still leads the 500m World Cup, but the Russian is injured and already announced that he will also skip the World Single Distance Championships and the World Sprint Championships in February.

And in the 1500m, Dutch skater Kjeld Nuis took the honours in 1:45.94, just nine hundredths of a second quicker than Russia's Denis Yuskov with New Zealand's Peter Michael third.

Yuskov does however lead the World Cup standings on 340 points, 35 clear of Nuis.

Sportsbeat 2017