The Canadian, a double silver medallist at the World Championships in Seoul this year, clocked 40.125sec to finish ahead of China's Dajing Wu, who finished in 40.220. 

Russia's six-time Olympic gold medallist Victor Ahn took bronze, the former South Korean timed at 40.334. 

In the women's 500m, China's Fan Kexin claimed victory as rivals Marianne St-Gelais and Arianna Fontana crashed with two laps to go.

Fan, an Olympic silver medallist over 1,000m, finished in 44.096 with Canada's Kassandra Bradette disqualified for causing the crash which took out her team-mate St-Gelais and Italian Fontana.

Triple Olympic silver medallist St-Gelais recovered to cross the line second but Fontana did not finish.

In the 1,500m, South Korea's Suk Hee Shim beat her team-mate Choi Min-jeong to the gold medal.

Choi, the defending overall World Cup champion and a seven-time world champion, had been favourite but it was Shim who triumphed in 2min 23.359sec.

She took the lead with a lap to go as Choi finished in 2:23.500 ahead of Dutch skater Suzanne Schulting, timed at 2:23.755.

Sjinkie Knegt of The Netherlands won the men's 1,500m, taking the lead with a lap to go from Israel's Vladislav Bykanov.

Knegt won in 2:13.490 as Bykanov, who was born in Ukraine and trains with the Dutch team, came home second in 2:13.620.

Russia's Semen Elistratov finished in 2:13.744 for the bronze medal.

The opening World Cup leg is due to conclude in the 1988 Winter Olympic host city tomorrow, with the second 500m finals for men and women as well as the concluding races over 1,000m.

The men's 5,000m and women's 3,000m relays will also reach a climax.