Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009
NAGANO (Kyodo) Nao Kodaira won the women's 1,000 meters to complete a sprint double at the National Speedskating Single Distance Championships Saturday.
Kodaira added to the 500-meter title she won on Friday after clocking 1 minute, 16.79 seconds at Nagano's M-Wave ice arena. Tomomi Okazaki finished 1.14 seconds back and Maki Tabata followed in third place in 1:19.19.
Teruhiro Sugimori clinched his first men's 1,000 title in 1:10.32, edging out last year's winner Keiichiro Nagashima (1:10.82) and Ryohei Haga (1:10.91).
Nagano Olympic 500-meter champion Hiroyasu Shimizu was 15th. Joji Kato, who won the 500 on Friday, sat out the 1,000 race.
The championships double as a qualifier for World Cup events in the first half of the season.
