The first 500m looked rather like the previous one in Changchun; Sang-Hwa Lee won in 38.18, a track record, but it was very close, with Jing Yu (CHN) finishing in 38.21 and Jenny Wolf third in 38.25. The following day, although her opening 100m was not back to her top speed, Wolf won her 55th World Cup victory, bringing the track record to 38.03. Lee was second with 38.21, and Yu third with 38.30. This means that Wolf keeps the overall lead with 720 points, with Lee on 650, while Kodaira with 475 moved up to third place in the absence of the Dutch skater Margot Boer.
After winning every 1000m race so far, Olympic Champion Christine Nesbitt (CAN) was not present in Obihiro. Heather Richardson (USA), after three second-place finishes in a row in the 1000m, had her first victory this weekend, winning both 1000m races. She performed very strongly in her first race, and set a new track record of 1:16.45. Nao Kodaira (JPN) was second with 1:17.33, and Sang-Hwa Lee (KOR) third in 1:17.87. The next day, when Richardson and Kodaira started in the final pair, the fastest time had been posted, somewhat surprisingly, by Maki Tsuji (JPN), who had her first-ever World Cup podium finish, as nobody came close to her 1:18.29. All Richardson had to do was to beat her pair-mate Kodaira and aim below 1:18, and that is exactly what she did. She won in 1:17.27, a little slower than on the first day, and Kodaira finished with silver in 1:17.77. With 490 points in total, Richardson also took over the lead from Nesbitt, who keeps 400. Kodaira – with 339 – moved above Boer in the rankings.
