The South Korean short track speed skating team, which will have the best record in history at the 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, has also performed steadily on the stage of the final World Tour qualifier of the season. On the 14th local time, in the 6th group of the women's 1500m quarterfinals of the 6th leg of the 2024-2025 ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Tour held in Milan, Italy, Cui Minjing, the triple crown champion of the 2025 Asian Winter Games, crossed the finish line first with a time of 2:23.619 and entered the semifinals.

Sim Hee-seok (middle) at the start of the competition

The double champion of the 2025 Asian Winter Games, Jin Jili, slid 2:24.768 and entered the semifinals with the first place in group 4, and Shen Xixi won the second place in group 8 with 2:32.592 and also entered the semifinals.

Kim Jiri and Shen Hee-seok also participated in the women's 1000m preliminaries, and successfully entered the next round with the second place in the second group and the second place in the first group respectively, but Lu Daoxi, who participated in the same race, failed to make the selection with the fourth place in the seventh group.

In the men's 1500m quarterfinals, Kim Jian-woo (2:13.023) and Jang Sung-woo (2:13.296) competed together in Group 2, and the two finally entered the semifinals as first and second place. However, Lee Jung-so (2:14.167), who was the captain of the Korean short track speed skating team at the 2025 Asian Winter Games, was only fifth in group 5 and tasted the bitter fruit of missing out on the next round. Kim Jian-woo and Jang Sung-woo participated in the men's 1000m heats, but they ranked 4th in Group 4 and 3rd in Group 5 respectively, and failed to qualify for the quarterfinals.

Jang Sung-woo (far right) and Kim Jian-woo turning

In the women's 500m heats, Choi Min-jung won the first place in the group with a time of 42.993 seconds in Group 7 and entered the quarterfinals, while Roh Do-hee and Lee So-yeon were eliminated in the 3rd place in Group 4 and 4th place in Group 8 respectively.

In the men's 500m heats, South Korea had three competitors and only one made it to the quarterfinals. Park Jang-hyuk finished second in Group 8 in 41.172 seconds and secured a ticket to the quarterfinals, but Kim Tae-sung and Park Ji-won were only ranked 4th in Group 1 and 3rd in Group 2 respectively and failed to reach the quarterfinals.

In the quarterfinals of the men's and women's relays, the South Korean team had mixed results. The Korean women's team, consisting of Kim Ji-ri, Lee So-yeon, Roh Do-hee, and Park Ji, entered the semi-finals with the first place in Group 3. However, the South Korean men's team composed of Jang Sung-woo, Kim Jian-woo, Park Ji-won, and Lee Jung-so only ranked third in Group 3 and was finally eliminated. In addition, in the mixed relay quarterfinals, Lee Jung-so, Lee So-yeon, Roh Do-hee, and Park Ji-won also played together, but failed to reach the semifinals.

Trying to sprint hard against my Roh Do-hee (middle)

In addition, the Korean short track speed skating team, which won 6 golds, 4 silvers and 3 bronzes at the 2025 Asian Winter Games, returned home on the 10th of this month and rested for only one day at a hotel near Incheon Airport, and then began a forced march abroad on the 11th to compete in the sixth leg of the World Tour held for the 2026 Winter Olympics test event in Milan.