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| Kim Gili and Choi Min-jeong |
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The world's best Korean short track team won the gold medal in the women's 1,500m.
South Korea's short track team Kim Ki-li (Seongnam City Hall) won a gold medal in the women's 1,500m short track final at the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games held at the Harbin Heilongjiang Ice Training Center in China on the 8th.
The women's 1500m is a sport in which the Korean national team has traditionally been strong at the Asian Winter Games. From Kim So-hee at the Sapporo Games in 1990, Kim Yun-mi in Gangwon in 1999, Choi Eun-kyung in Aomori in 2003, Jung Eun-joo in Jangchun in 2007, Almaty-Astaneat Cho Harry in 2011, and Choi Min-jeong in 2017, Korea has already won six times. In the ranking, many players were listed in the top ranks, including Kim Ki-li (Seongnam City Hall), who was ranked No. 1 last season and No. 4 this season, Choi Min-jeong, No. 5 and Shim Suk-hee (Seoul City Hall), who was ranked 13th.
In the preliminary round held on the 7th, Kim Ki-li ranked first with a time of 2:43.771 in Group 2, Choi Min-jeong also ranked first with a time of 2:31.808 in Group 3, and Shim Suk-hee also ranked second with a time of 2:34.927 in Group 4, all advancing to the semifinals.
In the 1500m semi-finals, one of the fastest players in each group 1st and 2nd and 3rd place in the group will reach the final with a wild card. In the semifinals, all South Korean players competed in Group 2 together for the final. Shim Suk-hee led the race by leading with the start. Choi Min-jeong took the lead again from the middle. Kim Ki-li then settled down, ranking first to third in the order of Choi Min-jeong, Kim Ki-li and Shim Suk-hee.
Choi Min-jeong and Kim Ki-li finished first and second with a time of 2:23.351 and 2:23.375, going straight to the finals. Shim Suk-hee had to watch the third-place records of Group 1 and Group 3 to reach the final with a wild card, but she advanced to the final with the best record of 2:23.492.
In the final, No. 1 Choi Min-jeong started the game on the innermost line, and Kim Ki-li, Shim Suk-hee, Yang Jing-ru, Jang Yi-cher, Gong Yoo, and Nagamori Haruna started together. China kept South Korean players in check with three players side by side at the front. Choi Min-jeong and Kim Ki-li came in second and third with six laps to go.
Kim Ki-li broke the trend of China and rose to the lead. In the process of coming up to the front together, Choi Min-jeong fell right in front of Yang Jing-ru, and she was not able to gain strength properly. Kim took the lead until the end with a time of 2:23.781. Choi ranked fourth with a time of 2:24.133.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
