Pavel Kulizhnikov won the men's 1,000m on home ice at the European Speed Skating Championships ©Getty Images

Russian athletes Pavel Kulizhnikov and Ekaterina Shikhova took the gold medals in the men's and women's 1,000 metre races at the European Speed Skating Championships at the Kolomna Speed Skating Centre.

Shikhova won the first medal of the day on home ice by taking the 1,000m in a time of 1min 14.34sec.

The Sochi 2014 bronze medallist finished 0.10 seconds ahead of Austria's Vanessa Herzog, who claimed silver.

Olympic champion Marrit Leenstra of The Netherlands took bronze with an overall time of 1:15.74.

Leenstra's time was replicated by her compatriot Lotte van Beek, who recorded the fastest lap time of the day in 28.9 seconds. 

But Leenstra claimed bronze after edging out her compatriot by eight-thousandths of a second in her overall time.

Kulizhnikov, who has been involved in two doping incidents in his career, took gold in the men's event with a time of 1:08.84, 0.08 seconds ahead of compatriot Denis Yuskov.

During yesterday's races, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, who is fighting a lifetime Olympic ban handed down by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), expressed hope that both Yuskov, who was cleared of wrongdoing by an IOC disciplinary panel last month, and Kulizhnikov will be declared eligible to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

The nation is being forced to compete neutrally due to the Sochi 2014 doping scandal and athletes must be proven to be clean before they can compete.

Germany's Nico Ihle claimed the final place on the podium, 0.44 seconds behind race winner Kulizhnikov.

Ekaterina Shikhova won the first medal of the day in the women's 1,000m ©Getty Images
Ekaterina Shikhova won the first medal of the day in the women's 1,000m ©Getty Images

There was a Netherlands one-two in the ladies' 3,000m event with 21-year-old Esmee Viseer, who qualified for Pyeongchang 2018 last week, and 2015 World Single Distances Championships silver medallist Carlijn Achtereekte taking the top two prizes in times of 4:05.31 and 4:06.81 respectively.

Russia's Natalia Voronina clinched bronze in 4:07.62.

The final event of the day was the men's 5,000m, won by Italy's Nicola Tumolero in a time of 6:16.85.

Alexander Rumyantsev of Russia, who had his Sochi 2014 results annulled for doping offences, finished 1.28 seconds behind in second with Marcel Bosker of The Netherlands clinching bronze in 6:20.45.

Tomorrow sees the team events close the competition in Kolomna.