Short track Choi Min-jeong wins gold medal in women’s 1500m at World Championships… Kim Gil-li wins bronze

[The Fact | Reporter Kim Su-min] South Korea’s female short track ‘signboard’ Choi Min-jeong (Seongnam City Hall) won the gold medal in the women’s 1500m at the World Championships.

Minjeong Choi recorded 2 minutes and 27.136 seconds in the women’s 1500m final at the ‘2025 International Skating Union (ISU) Short Track World Championships’ held at the Beijing Capital Indoor Ice Rink in China on the 16th, becoming the first to pass the final.

Following this, Courtney Sarro (Canada, 2 minutes 27.194 seconds) took the silver medal, and Gil-li Kim (Seongnam City Hall, 2 minutes 27.257 seconds) took the bronze medal.

Choi Min-jeong, who failed to win a medal after finishing fifth in the women’s 1000m final the day before, shook off her disappointment by winning the gold medal in the 1500m.

Min-Jeong Choi, who was waiting for her chance in the lower ranks at the beginning of the race, overtook Saro on the outside course with 8 laps left and took the lead in one breath. Min-Jeong Choi, who briefly gave up the lead to Saro with 5 laps left, succeeded in overtaking Saro on the outside course with 3 and a half laps left and took first place.

Although Saro chased until the end, Choi Min-jeong maintained her lead and took first place.

Kim Gil-li took advantage of the chaos caused by Hanner Desmoot (Belgium), Elisa Conportola and Arianna Fontana (all from Italy) falling with the last lap remaining to move up to third place and cross the finish line third.

The Korea Skating Union automatically selects one male and one female athlete who wins a gold medal in an individual event at the World Championships and has the highest ranking among domestic athletes as national representatives for the next season. By winning the gold medal in the 1500m, Choi Min-jeong is more likely to be automatically selected as a national representative for the 2025-2026 season.