Herzog's victory at the Eissportzentrum Erfurt was Austria's first 500m women's World Cup win since Emese Hunyady achieved the feat 21 years ago. 

European Single Distance Championship gold medal winner Herzog could only manage silver behind Karolína Erbanová in yesterday’s 500m event at the German venue but managed to recover to take the top prize this time around in a time of 37.88sec.

This result put her ahead of rival Erbanová, who finished 0.08 seconds behind the Austrian and had to settle for the silver medal.

"Today’s race was just a little better than yesterday’s," said Herzog. 

"I concentrated on staying low at the start and I was five hundredths faster in the opener, so that worked out well.

"I want to gain more speed.

"I’ve been training with the boys and I will continue to do that over the next couple of weeks to be even faster at the Olympic Games."

Russia’s Olga Fatkulina, who had her Olympic silver medal from Sochi 2014 stripped by the International Olympic Committee following a violation of anti-doping rules, secured the bronze medal in 38.28.

There was Dutch dominance in the men’s 1,000m as nine-time World Championship medallist Kjeld Nuis and Hein Otterspeer claimed the two top spots in times of 1min 08.57sec and 1:08.96 respectively.

Mika Poutala of Finland, who represented his country at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, was just 0.03 seconds behind Otterspeer in the bronze medal position.

Norway’s Sverre Lunde Pedersen, son of 1980 Olympic speed skater Jarle Pedersen, who is now coach of the team, managed to improve on yesterday’s silver medal in the men’s 1,500m event by claiming gold in today’s 5,000m race.

The 25-year-old completed the course in 6:14.66 with Italy’s Nicola Tumolero, winner of the 5,000m event at the 2018 European Speed Skating Championships earlier this month, second in 6:16.11.

Ted-Jan Bloemen, a Canadian of Dutch heritage, completed the podium line-up after finishing one second behind Tumolero.

The final race of the day saw Poland’s Natalia Czerwonka, a Sochi 2014 silver medallist, win the 1,500m event in 1:57.61, 0.28 seconds ahead of five-time Olympic medallist and 17-time World Championship gold medal winner Martina Sáblíková of the Czech Republic.

Home athlete Gabriele Hirschbichler was a further 0.07 seconds further back, but it was enough to secure Germany's only medal of the day.

The competition in Erfurt is due to conclude tomorrow with the men racing over 500m and 1000m whilst the women will compete in the 1,000m and 3,000m races.