The Japanese athlete picked up 66 sprint points as he crossed the line first in 7min 56.910sec to pip Ruslan Zakharov to victory at the Arena Lodowa.

The Russian finished in 7:56.990 while Poland's Zbigniew Bródka rounded out the top three in 8:09.480.

Obayashi was languishing in 10^th place for a quarter of the race before he eventually worked his way into pole position by the eighth lap and held firm to secure the win after 16.

It came somewhat as a surprise that the 27-year-old was able to sneak victory after only just qualifying for the final, finishing sixth in the semi-final with the top eight progressing.

Olympic bronze medallist Brittany Bowe of the United States beat her own track record of 1:15.39 in the 1000 metres women's Division A with a time of 1:14.786.

She also holds the world record for the event in 1:11.61.

Pyeongchang 2018 gold medallists Miho Takagi and Nao Kodaira of Japan claimed silver and bronze after finishing in 1:15.385 and 1:15.711, respectively.

Erin Jackson of the US broke her second track record in two days in the 500m women's Division A as she clocked in after 37.555 seconds to bag 60 points.

The 29-year-old won yesterday's race in 37.613 to break the previous record.

A time of 37.635 meant that Russia's Angelika Golikova narrowly missed out on gold and Kodaira was forced to settle for bronze in 37.789.

Olympic silver medallist Kim Min-seok secured victory in the 1500m men's Division A by fine margins.

The South Korean beat China's Zhongyan Ning by 0.039sec as they finished with respective times of 1:46.152 and 1:46.191.

Canada got off to a perfect start in the team pursuit women's Division A with a 3:00.280 win over Japan and The Netherlands in 3:01.516 and 3:02.699 respectively.