Ayano Sato, Miho Takagi and sister Nana won gold in the women's team pursuit after finishing in 2mins 57.80secs at the Meiji Hokkaido-Tokachi Oval.

The Olympic champions beat The Netherlands to get gold, with the Dutch team consisting of Ireen Wüst, Lotte van Beek and Joy Beune recording a time of 3:00.13.

The Russian team of Yevgenia Lalenkova, Natalya Voronina and Elizaveta Kazelina finished in 3:01.11 to get the bronze medal.

Japan's second gold medal of the day came in the women's 500 metres, with Olympic gold medallist Nao Kodaira victorious in that event with a time of 37.49. 

In second was Vanessa Herzog of Austria in 37.62 and Kodaira's compatriot Maki Tsuji finished third in 38.04. 

The Russian team of Alexander Rumyantsev, Danila Semerikov and Sergey Trofimov won the men's team pursuit in 3:41.26, beating The Netherlands team of Bob de Vries, Simon Schouten and Marcel Bosker.  

Olympic champions Håvard Bøkko, Sverre Lunde Pedersen and Simen Spieler Nilsen of Norway took bronze after recording a time of 3:42.14.

In the men's 500m, Norwegian Olympic champion Haarvard Lorentzen finished 0.04 seconds ahead of Russia's Pavel Kulizhnikov to take gold in 34.73, while Japan's Tatsuya Shinhama came third with 34.87 to get bronze. 

Tomorrow's competition will see the final of the mass start as well as the 1,500m events.

The event is the first ISU Speed Skating World Cup of the season.