OBIHIRO, Japan, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Host Japan had a clean sweep of four speed skating gold medals at stake on Tuesday at the Asian Winter Games, and only the Olympic Council of Asia was able to stop them from a podium sweep.
Miho Takagi took her third medal here with a victory in the women's 1,500 meters, while Takuro Oda came first in the men's 1,000m.
Takagi, who already had the 3,000m gold and 1,000m silver to her belt, triumphed in one minute, 56.07 seconds, while her teammate Misaki Oshigiri came second in 1:58.13.
Nana Takagi finished third in 1:59.45 with her fellow Japanese Ayano Sato fourth in 1:59.77.
China's Olympic 1,000m gold medalist Zhang Hong, who clocked 2:00.14, took a lucky bronze because the Olympic Council of Asia doesn't allow a clean sweep of the podium by the same delegation.
"This was the event where we had the biggest chance of sweeping the top four spots, and being able to do that was very significant for us as a Japan national team," said Nana Takagi.
Oda took the men's 1,000m in 1:09.33, ahead of Denis Kuzin of Kazakhstan (1:09.64) and Japan's Shunsuke Nakamura (1:09.76).
Star skater Nao Kodaira added a 500m gold to her 1,000m win, clocking 37.39 seconds.
Lee Sang-Hwa, 500m Olympic champion in 2010 and 2014, finished second in 37.70 and Japanese Go Arisa was third in 37.73.
In the women's team pursuit, the Japanese team of Misaki Oshigiri, Nana Gakagi and Ayano Sato triumphed in 3:00.08, beating South Korea by 6.67 seconds into second place.
China got the bronze in 3:10.23, 7.29 seconds ahead of Kazakhstan.
