Fish breaks world record in speed skating championships

SALT LAKE CITY: Graeme Fish of Canada shattered the world record here on Friday to win the men's 10,000 meters race at the ISU World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships.

Fish, a bronze medal winner in Thursday's 5,000m, clocked 12 minutes and 33.868 seconds for the victory, smashing the previous mark of 12:36.30 set by his compatriot Te-Jan Bloemen on November 21, 2015, in Salt Lake City.

Having claimed the men's 5,000m title on Thursday, Bloemen added a silver to his collection as he crossed the line in 12:45.010 while the bronze medal went to Patrick Beckert of Germany.

Pyeongchang Olympic champion Kodaira Nao beat off a strong challenge from Russian opponents to snatch the gold medal of the women's 500m. Kokaira recorded a winning time of 36.692 seconds while Angelina Golikova and Olga Fatkulina, who were 0.04 and 0.09 seconds behind, took the silver and bronze respectively.

In the men's 500m, Pavel Kulizhnikov led a one-two finish for Russia. The 25-year-old world record holder clocked 33.727 seconds for the top honor, 0.26 seconds ahead of his teammate Ruslan Murashov. Shinhama Tatsuya of Japan grabbed the bronze in 34.035 to prevent a medal sweep of Russian skaters as Viktor Mushtakov settled for the fourth place in 34.059.

In the women's team pursuit, Japan claimed the title and the Netherlands and Canada were second and third respectively.