Japan's Nao Kodaira leads the women's standings in Calgary ©ISU

Japan's Nao Kodaira made huge strides towards her first career International Skating Union (ISU) World Sprint Championships title by winning both the women's 500 metres and the 1,000m in Calgary today.

Kodaira was the only one to beat the 37 second barrier in the 500m event at the Calgary Olympic Oval with 36.75, just 0.01 above the 2013 track record by Sang-Hwa Lee of South Korea.

In the 1,000m, Kodaira equalled the track record with 1:12.51, to take a lead of 0.690 in the classification.

European Champion Karolina Erbanova of the Czech Republic came second in the 500m, in a Czech record of 37.06, beating her previous national best by 0.61. 

Heather Bergsma of the United States took the 500m bronze in 37.22.

Erbanova then came fourth in the 1,000m, again breaking her own Czech national record when she set 1:13.53.

Despite her personal best, she was pushed from the top three in the overall classification by Jorien ter Mors.

The Dutchwoman, who had come fifth in the 500m, set the 1000m bar high with a Dutch record of 1:12.53 in the second to last pair.

Only Kodaira was able to beat Ter Mors.

Bergsma, who saw Kodaira equaling her 2015 track record, came third in 1:12.95.

Bergsma trails Kodaira by 0.69 seconds going into tomorrow's racing with Ter Mors is 0.81 behind.

Kai Verbij of The Netherlands is the overnight men's leader ©Getty Images
Kai Verbij of The Netherlands is the overnight men's leader ©Getty Images

The men’s tournament is very close overnight with Kai Verbij of The Netherlands currently in pole position.

He has 0.11 lead over Germany’s Nico Ihle but the top six skaters are all within 0.50 of the leader ahead of tomorrow’s action. 

Ihle is in second place while Norway’s Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen is 0.13 behind in third place.

Apart from Verbij’s third place in the 1,000m, none of the top three riders in the overall classification managed to grab a podium place today. 

Verbij finished ninth in the 500m, Ihle took fifth place in both the 500m and the 1,000m, and Lorentzen was sixth in the 500m and fourth in the 1,000m.

Ronald Mulder stopped the clock at 34.18 to skate a new Dutch 500m record and a new Championships record.

Roman Krech came second in a new Kazakh record of 34.21 while Russia's Ruslan Murashov was third in a personal best of 34.29.

The Netherlands' 1,000m World Champion Kjeld Nuis crossed the line in a time of 1:06.61 to extend his dominance in the event.

Canada's Vincent De Haitre took second in 1:06.72 while Verbij took third in 1:06.73