Italian Arianna Fontana safely qualified for the semi-finals of the women's 1,500 metres having won heat one in 2min 24.730sec in front of Yuting Zhang of China and Dutch skater Rianne de Vries, who joined her.

Ekaterina Eferemenkova of Russia took the heat two victory in 2:27.139, progressing with Canadians Danae Blais and Camille de Serres-Rainville.

Other top names progressing included Suzanne Schulting from the home nation, winning heat six in 2:26.184 and moving on with American Corinne Stoddard and Tifany Huot Marchand of France.

Courtney Sarault of Canada won heat six in 2:24.664 in front of South Korean Seo Whimin and Petra Jaszapati of Hungary.

In the men's equivalent, top seed Hungarian Shaoang Liu won the first heat of the quarter-finals in 2:09.244 in front of Canadian Charles Hamelin and Denis Ayrapetyan of Russia.

His brother Shaolin Sándor Liu of Hungary progressed in heat six behind South Korean Park Jang-hyuk who crossed the line in 2:13.468.

Semen Elistratov led a one-two for Russia in heat three with Vladimir Balbekov to finish in 2:14.153, while The Netherlands had two in the top two in heat four, with Sjinkie Knegt leading Itzhak de Laat in 2:13.987.

Finally, in the 2,000m mixed relay, eight teams made it through to the semi-finals, with Canada leading The Netherlands in heat one in 2:37.896.

Russia and Belgium made it out of heat two, while South Korea and Hungary went through in heat three.

China and Italy were the last qualifiers in heat four.