Wust takes 22nd 1500m ladies gold at ISU World Cup Speed Skating

TOKYO - Ireen Wust from the Netherlands clinched her career 22nd World Cup gold in the ladies 1500m race of the International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup Speed Skating at Tomakomai, Japan on Saturday.

Nao Kodaira of Japan grabbed another 500m win and Bo-Reum Kim of South Korean edged out Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy in the Mass Start Sprint.

Japanese skater Miho Takagi, who was unbeaten in five World Cup 1500m races last season but came second last week in Obihiro, Japan, settled for silver again. Last week's winner Brittany Bowe of the United States took the bronze medal.

Lollobrigida, who came third in the B Division last week, was promoted to the A Division and set a high bar in the second pairing already. She did not manage to stop the clock under two minutes resulting in 2:00.01. Wust broke the two-minute-barrier stopping the clock at 1:58.742 in the eighth pairing.

Takagi and Antoinette de Jong of the Netherlands challenged Wust's time in the penultimate pair, but Takagi came more than half a second short with 1:59.28, and De Jong finished in 1:59.95 to take fourth place, just ahead of Lollobrigida, who ended up in fifth place.

In the final pairing last week's winner Bowe exploded from the start. The 30-year-old American was ahead of Wust in all split times until 1100m, but she couldn't maintain her pace and finished in 1:59.82.

Bowe kept the lead in the 1500m World Cup ranking with 108 points. Takagi came level in points and Wust retained third place with 103 points.

Nao Kodaira was not as fast as she had been on Friday, but 38.26 seconds was more than enough to secure her second 500m win of the weekend. Vanesse Herzog of Austria took her fourth consecutive silver medal in 38.56, while Bowe took her second bronze medal of the day, after the 1500m.

Kodaira and Herzog extended their lead as one and two in the 500m World Cup ranking. Olga Fatkulina of Russia came sixth on Saturday and dropped to fifth place in the ranking behind her compatriot Angelina Golikova and Bowe.

Without Olympic champion Nana Takagi of Japan and Olympic bronze medalist Irene Schouten of the Netherlands, the ladies' Mass Start field seemed to be decapitated, but Kim Bo-Reum of South Korea was present to take the honors.

Esmee Visser of the Netherlands was the first to set-up an attack in a race that was hampered by many crashes in the back of the bunch. Claudia Pechtstein of Germany countered and Visser never really managed to get away from the pack. Her compatriot Mellissa Wijfje took over the lead in the penultimate lap, while the bunch was gearing up for a final sprint.

Lollobrigida went to the front for the final lap and was still in the lead on the final straight, but Kim came from behind to edge her out on the line and take the gold medal. Lollobrigida got silver and the Canadian skater Ivanie Blondin came third.