Korea dominate on opening day at Salt Lake World Cup

Minjeong Choi took 1500m gold, with Jiyoo Kim and Kyoungwon Lim taking the women's and men's titles in the 1000m respectively, as Canada's Samuel Girard took the other gold of the night in the men's 1500m.

Having already broken the world record in the semi-finals, with a time of 2:14.354, Choi dominated the race from six laps out as Canada's Marianne St-Gelais and Marie-Eve Drolet took the remaining podium positions.

Great Britain's Charlotte Gilmartin finished fourth, with the win meaning Choi now leads the World Cup standings over 1500m.

Korea's other success came in the 1000m, where Kim hit the front with two laps to go and held on to take the win ahead of the Netherlands' Suzanne Schulting and Hungary's Zsofia Konya, who won her first ever World Cup medal.

Kim now leads the 1000m World Cup standings with compatriot Lim matching her achievement with a commanding performance in the men's event, leading for the majority of the race to take it from fellow Korean Daeheon Hwang, with France's Thibaut Fauconnet in third.

Girard's 1500m gold was his second in successive weekends as he added to his Calgary 500m title with a win ahead of Hungary's Shaolin Sandor Liu, with home favourite John-Henry Krueger taking third as Liu went into top spot in the World Cup standings.

Sunday's action Stateside sees the 500m events reach their conclusion, with the women's 3000m relay being contested between Korea, Netherlands, China and Canada, while the men's 5000m showdown sees Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Canada and China face off for gold.

Sportsbeat 2016