The 31-year-old world champion broke the national record in 36.50sec, leaving world record holder, South Korea's Lee Sang-Hwa, 0.21 seconds behind in the final pairing.

Japan's Arisa Go took bronze in 37.17 seconds.

Kodaira and Lee were the only ladies to break the 37-second barrier in the first A Division event at the Utah Olympic Oval.

“Unfortunately the air pressure was high, so no world record,” Kodaira bemoaned. 

With 10.26 Lee had the fastest start of the field and was happy with her performance.

“I’m getting closer (to Kodaira) every week,” the Korean said. 

The Netherlands' Janine Smit slipped in the final corner and crashed into the boards. 

In the men's 500 metres Canada's Alex Boisvert-Lacroix added to his first individual World Cup gold in Calgary last week with another in a season best time of 34.15 seconds.

“I think Pavel Kulizhnikov was the last one to win back-to-back and it’s nice to be on the same level as him to be able to do that," he said.

"It’s really hard to go on after a win, recompose and come back to a race. 

"Today I felt amazing, even in my warm-up I felt I had it. 

"I knew I was going for a personal best. 

"I needed a personal best to win but it wasn’t a perfect race. 

"Maybe I could have skated a 34.0 without that mistake.”

The Netherlands' Dai Dai Ntab was the first to beat the 34.31 second-mark  that Boisvert-Lacroix had clocked last in Calgary. 

The Dutchman finished in 34.26, but he had to settle for fourth place.

Mika Poutala set a new season’s best when he finished in a new Finnish national record of 34.17 seconds to grab the silver medal. 

The Netherlands' Ronald Mulder took the bronze in a time of 34.22 seconds.

Chinese skater Gao Tingyu, in 34.34 seconds, who came fifth, and German Nico Ihle, in 34.35 seconds, who came seventh, also skated national records.

 World record holder Kulizhnikov, of Russia, made a costly mistake and clocked 34.40 seconds to finish ninth. 

Japan's Miho Takagi, Nana Takagi and Ayano Sato broke the world record in the women's Team Pursuit.

They shaved 0.02 seconds off Canada’s 2009 Calgary world record of 2 minutes and 55.79 seconds. 

Miho Takagi surprised how fast they went: "The condition is good, but this time is amazing,” she said.

The Netherlands trio of Marrit Leenstra, Melissa Wijfje and Lotte van Beek took silver in a new national record time of 2:55.57, with Germany: Claudia Pechstein, Roxanne Dufter and Gabriele Hirschbichler taking bronze in 2:56.14.

The Canadian men: Ted-Jan Bloemen, Denny Morrison and Benjamin Donnelly, made amends for their crash in the Team Pursuit in Calgary last week. by winning in a national record of 3 minutes and 36.44 seconds.

Italy and New Zealand took silver and bronze with national records.

Italy’s Andrea Giovannini, Nicola Tumolero and Riccardo Bugari finished in 3:36.54 and New Zealand’s Reyon Kay, Shane Dobbin and Peter Michael clocked 3:36.79.