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TOKYO, Nov. 24-- Ireen Wust from the Netherlands clinched her career 22nd World Cup gold in the ladies 1500m race of the International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup Speed Skating at Tomakomai, Japan on Saturday. Nao Kodaira of Japan grabbed another 500m win and Bo-Reum Kim of South Korean edged out Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy in the Mass Start Sprint. Japanese skater Miho Takagi, who was unbeaten in five World Cup 1500m races last season but came second last week in Obihiro, Japan, settled for silver again. Last week's winner Brittany Bowe of the United States took the bronze medal. Lollobrigida, who came third in the B Division last week, was promoted to the A Division and set a high bar in the second pairing already. She did not manage to stop the clock under two minutes resulting in 2:00.01. Wust broke the two-minute-barrier stopping the clock at 1:58.742 in the eighth pairing. Takagi and Antoinette de Jong of the Netherlands challenged Wust's time in the penultimate pair, but Takagi came more than half a second short with 1:59.28, and De Jong finished in 1:59.95 to take fourth place, just ahead of Lollobrigida, who ended up in fifth place. In the final pairing last week's winner Bowe exploded from the start. The 30-year-old American was ahead of Wust in all split times until 1100m, but she couldn't maintain her pace and finished in 1:59.82. Bowe kept the lead in the 1500m World Cup ranking with 108 points. Takagi came level in points and Wust retained third place with 103 points. | 
