Nao Kodaira won her second gold medal ©Getty Images

Nao Kodaira defeated two-time reigning Olympic champion Lee Sang-hwa to claim 500 metres speed skating gold on a day of home Japanese domination at the Asian Winter Games here.

The event at the Obihiro Forest Speed Skating Rink contained all three medallists at this year's World Single Distance Championships in Gangneung earlier this month. 

Lee, the 500m world record holder, has struggled with a calf injury all winter.

She still managed to take home the World Championship silver medal but proved unable to beat Kodaira.

The Japanese star triumphed in 37.39sec, repeating her 1,000m victory yesterday.

Lee finished 0.31 seconds behind in second with Japan's Go Arisa a further three-hundredths behind.

A photo-finish was required to separate her and fourth placed Yu Jing of China, the bronze medal winner at the World Championships.

Japanese skaters won all four gold medals today to the delight of the home crowd.

Miho Takagi won the opening women's 1,500m event as home stars swept the first four positions.

Miho Takagi of Japan was among the home winners at the Asian Winter Games in Sapporo ©Getty Images
Miho Takagi of Japan was among the home winners at the Asian Winter Games in Sapporo ©Getty Images

She clocked an Asian Winter Games record of 1:56.07 to beat team-mate Misaki Oshigari by 2.06 seconds.

Nana Takagi completed the fastest three in 1:59.45.

But, because of an Asian Winter Games rule preventing clean sweeps, Zhang Hong of China was awarded the bronze medal after finishing fifth fastest in 2:00.14.

Takuro Oda won the men's 1,000m in another Asian record of 1:09.33.

Kazakhstan's Denis Kuzin placed second in 1:09.64 with the podium completed by Japan's Shunsuke Nakamura in 1:09.76.

Japan made it four from four with a dominant women's team pursuit win in 3:00.08. 

Their closest rivals South Korea, more than six seconds adrift in 3:06.67.

China took the bronze medal in 3:10.23.