As in the 1,500m event the day before at Tomakomai Highland Sports Center, Kjeld Nuis - the Pyeongchang 2018 champion at 1,000 and 1,500m - earned gold and Thomas Krol bronze, but the middle man was different.

In the 1,500m, world allround champion Patrick Roest had claimed silver, but on this occasion second place was filled by 2017 world sprint champion Kai Verbij.

Nuis skated against Krol in the second last pairing and both men were the first to clock a time under 1min 11sec,

The Olympic champion finished in 1:10.45 and his team mate crossed the line 0.46 seconds later.

Verbij was in the final pairing with Norway’s Olympic silver medallist Havard, Lorentzen ,finishing in 1:10.72, with his rival clocking 1:11.06 for fourth place.

Last week's World Cup winner Pavel Kulizhnikov of Russia was not skating the 1,000m in Tomakomai.

Nuis thus took over the lead in the World Cup ranking with 114 points.

Krol is second with 96 points and Verbij third with 94.

Kulizhnikov dropped to 11th place.

Bart Swings won his first career 5,000 metres World Cup gold and, in so doing, became the second Belgian to do so after Bart Veldkamp in 1999.

Swings set a track record time of 6:34.85 in the first pairing of the men's longest distance at this event and nobody managed to come close.

While conditions worsened, with increasing winds and a bit of rain, last week's winner The Netherlands' Patrick Roesttook on compatriot Marcel Bosker in the penultimate pairing.

The Dutchman started faster than Swings, but could not maintain his high pace halfway through the race and finished in 6:37.32.

Sverre Lunde Pedersen of Norway earned the silver medal in 6:36.86.

Roest kept the lead in the long distance World Cup with 108 points, with Pedersen second on 94.

The Netherlands seemed on course for their second team sprint win of the season when Nuis entered the final lap on gold medal pace, but the Dutchman could not match the last lap of youngster Viktor Mushtakov and Russia ran away with victory.

Mushtakov crossed the line in 1:23.54, after Ruslan Murashov and Alexey Yesin had set him up for the final lap in 55.94sec.

Dai Dai Ntab an Verbij launched Nuis in 55.59, but the man who had already won this weekend's 1500m and 1,000m finished 0.10 seconds behind Russia's time in 1:23.64.

Canada - Christopher Fiola, Laurent Dubreuil and Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu - took the bronze medal in 1:24.23.

The Netherlands stay on top of the World Cup ranking with 228 points, followed by Russia, who have 200, and Canada, who have 192.