![Choi Min-jung trains at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, on Feb. 8 (local time) for the Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo 2026 Winter Olympics short track events. [Photo by Yonhap]](https://image.ajunews.com/content/image/2026/02/15/20260215052431603668.jpg)
Choi Min-jung (Seongnam City Hall) won Heat 5 on Saturday (Korea time) at the Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, finishing in 1 minute, 26.925 seconds.
In the preliminaries, the top two finishers in each heat advance, along with four skaters selected by time from among the eight third-place finishers across the eight heats.
Choi posted the fastest time among the 32 skaters who raced Saturday.
Kim Gil-li (Seongnam City Hall) won Heat 8 in 1:29.656 to secure her spot in the quarterfinals.
Kim fell after colliding with Miheller Pelzebur of the Netherlands immediately after the race but got up without a serious injury.
Noh Do-hee (Hwaseong City Hall) placed second in Heat 2 in 1:10.097 to move on.
The women’s 1,000-meter medal races are scheduled for the 16th.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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