NAGANO (Kyodo) Nao Kodaira defended her 1,500-meter crown in a meet record time to complete a treble on the final day of the speed skating single-distance national championships Sunday.
Kodaira, who claimed the 500 and the 1,000 titles in the first two days of the three-day meet, clocked 1 minute, 59.34 seconds to beat Maki Tabata by 0.30 at Nagano’s M-Wave ice arena. Masako Hozumi came in third with 2:00.06.
In men’s action, Teruhiro Sugimori timed 1:48.88 to win his second straight title in the 1,500, a day after he captured the 1,000 crown. Takaharu Nakajima finished second in 1:50.22 and Shingo Doi followed in third in 1:50.31.
The championships doubled as a qualifier for World Cup events in the first half of the season.