Salt Lake City Olympic skater Kuniomi Haneishi stormed to victory in the men's 500 meters while Tomomi Shimizu grabbed the women's 500 title on the opening day of a national invitational speedskating meet on Wednesday evening.
Haneishi posted the fastest time in both legs of the men's 500 at Iwate Prefectural skating center to win in a total of 1 minute, 15.59 seconds while Shimizu grabbed her second straight title with a time of 1:22.67.
Eiji Kohara won the men's 5,000 meters when he clocked a time of 7:21.28.