SEOUL, March 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korean speed skater Lee Sang-hwa on Sunday was crowned the women's overall champion in 500 meters at the Speed Skating World Cup. At the Speed Skating World Cup Final in Heerenveen, Netherlands, Lee won the 500ｍ race with a time of 37.77 seconds, edging out Wang Beixing of China by 0.01 of a second. The victory gave Lee 150 World Cup points for a season-total of 1,055, the best score among all 500ｍ female skaters this season. Lee is the first South Korean to win the World Cup overall title in any distance.

(Adds quotes) By Manuele Lang OFTERSCHWANG, Germany, March 10 (Reuters) - Tina Maze won her duel with world champion Mikaela Shiffrin in a women's World Cup slalom on Sunday to keep her chances alive of scoring a grand slam of crystal globes this season. Led by her young American rival in the morning run, the Slovenian overall runaway leader fought back in the afternoon to snatch her 10th victory of the World Cup season, her second in a slalom.

Croatia's Ivica Kostelic won a World Cup slalom race here on Sunday, with Marcel Hirscher of Austria finishing second to clinch the season's crystal globe in the discipline. France's Alexis Pinturault went fastest by a good margin on the first run, but he skied out on the second with victory in his sights, clearing the way for the veteran Kostelic to win a World Cup slalom for the first time since he triumphed at Wengen in January, 2012.

Overall World Cup winner Tina Maze claimed her tenth victory of the season in Sunday's slalom with Swiss Wendy Holden second and Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States third. Slovenia's Maze was the fastest over the two runs with a winning time of 1min 52.85sec with Holden at 0.25sec back and Shiffrin, the world slalom champion, at 0.75sec off the pace. ryj/ak