The ranking was made by award ranking points. The points were awarded to the skaters who had skated all the distances. The final ranking was then decided by ordering the skaters by lowest point totals.
1 point for 1st place
2 point for 2nd place
3 point for 3rd place
and so on
One could win the World Championships also by winning at least three of the four distances, so the ranking could be affected by this.