Japan's Nao Kodaira beat Austria's Vanessa Herzog in the women's 500m at the ISU Speed Skating World Cup in Hamar ©ISU

Japan's Nao Kodaira won the first women's 500 metres event at the International Skating Union (ISU) Speed Skating World Cup to close the gap with her nearest rival Vanessa Herzog of Austria in the overall standings. 

The event at the Lillehammer 1994 Olympic Speed Skating Hall in the Norwegian town of Hamar is the fifth and final leg before the Salt Lake City Finals on March 9 and 10.

The Olympic champion set a track record of 37.254sec in the first 500m race to beat Herzog, who clocked 37.378.

With this, the Japanese skater rose to second in the overall standings, closing the gap on Herzog's lead, with the Austrian on 444 points and Kodaira 360.

Russia's Angelina Golikova finished third in the 500m in 37.916.

Kodaira then finished second in the women's 1,000m in 1min 15.254sec.

Brittany Bowe of the United States was faster than Kodaira in that event, winning in 1:14.791, as Lotte van Beek of The Netherlands came third in 1:15.429.

Brittany Bowe of the United States won the women's 1,000m race at the ISU Speed Skating World Cup in Hamar, beating Japan's Nao Kodaira, who earlier had won the 500m ©ISU
Brittany Bowe of the United States won the women's 1,000m race at the ISU Speed Skating World Cup in Hamar, beating Japan's Nao Kodaira, who earlier had won the 500m ©ISU

In the men's 500m, Russia's Pavel Kulizhnikov was triumphant in 34.652.

He finished ahead of South Korea's Jun-Ho Kim in 34.718 and Dai Dai Ntab of The Netherlands in 34.771.

The podium in the men's 1,000m was all Dutch, with Kai Verbij winning the event in 1:08.471.

His compatriots Thomas Krol and Kjeld Nuis were in second and third with times of 1:08.534 and 1:08.714 respectively. 

The competition in Hamar is due to conclude tomorrow with the men and women's second 500m races, as well as the 1,500m.