The 31-year-old ensured The Netherlands' 100 per cent record continued in speed skating competitions here so far as she improved on her silver medal over 3,000m.

Wüst was off the speed in the early stages but paced her effort to perfection to set a blistering time of 1min 54.35sec.

She has now won more Olympic medals than any other speed skater and has won more gold medals than any other Dutch Olympian - summer or winter.

Fellow speed skater Sven Kramer is among those to have won four along with swimmer Inge de Bruijn, cyclist Leontien van Moorsel, sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen and three-day eventer Charles Pahud de Mortange.

A Dutch clean sweep appeared to be on the cards again when Marrit Leenstra went into second place and Lotte van Beek third.

But Miho Takagi of Japan had other ideas in the final heat as she challenged Wust's time all the way before crossing second, in 1:54.55.

Leenstra held on for third in 1:55.26, just one hundredth of a second in front of van Beek.

United States' eight year wait for an Olympic speed skating medal continues after Brittany Bowe and Heather Bergsma finished fifth and eighth respectively.

Wüst has now won gold medals across four Winter Olympic Games after opening her account with 3,000m success in Turin 12 years ago.

She also won the 1,500m at Vancouver 2010 before 3,000m and team pursuit successes in Sochi four years ago.

Takagi, meanwhile, won her first Olympic medal to follow gold in this event at last year's Asian Winter Games in Sapporo.