Russian skaters dominate but Olympic involvement remains unknown

However, their involvement at next month's Olympics in PyeongChang is still not assured, meaning this could be as good as the season gets.

All Russian athletes must prove their anti-doping credentials to a special International Olympic Committee panel if they are to be selected as neutral competitors, following the Russian team ban announced before Christmas.

And Kulizhnikov, a world champion over 500m and 1000m last year, served a two-year doping ban between 2012 and 2014.

He was a tenth of a second quicker than Russian team-mate Denis Yuskov while Germany's Nico Ihle took bronze.

Yuskov, another former world champion, also served a ban for using marijuana, but was cleared of an anti-doping rule violation during the Sochi Games by the IOC last month.

Shikhova is the highest ranked women's skater in Europe behind Japan's Nao Kodaira and Miho Takagi and America's Heather Bergsma. She beat Austria's Vanessa Herzog by a tenth of a second to win 1000m gold, while Holland's Marrit Leenstra took bronze.

Elsewhere, Dutch skater Esmee Visser won the women's 3000m ahead of team-mate Carlijn Achtereekte and Russian Natalia Voronina.

And Italy's Nicola Tumolero edged out Russia's Alexander Rumyantsev and Danila Semerikov to take gold in the men's 5000m.