On the second day of the medal race at the 2025 Harbin Winter Asian Games on the 9th, gold medals poured in from short track and speed skating. On this day, South Korea added 4 gold medals and 4 silver medals, increasing its total medal count since the opening of the games to 11 golds, 9 silvers, and 7 bronzes.
South Korea maintained its overall second place behind host country China, which had 15 golds, 15 silvers, and 14 bronzes. The short track team, which swept up 4 golds, 2 silvers, and 3 bronzes the previous day, added 2 golds and 2 silvers on this day, finishing the competition with 6 golds, 4 silvers, and 3 bronzes.
Women's team ace Choi Min-jeong (Seongnam City Hall) claimed the top spot in the 1000m final held at the multipurpose hall of the Heilongjiang Ice Training Center in Harbin, China, setting a new Asian Games record of 1 minute 29.637 seconds. Choi Min-jeong won her third gold medal of the games following the mixed 2000m relay and women's 500m, becoming the first triple gold medalist of the South Korean delegation at this event. Kim Gil-ri (Seongnam City Hall), who won the women's 1500m the previous day, took the silver in the 1000m with a time of 1 minute 29.739 seconds.
In the men's 1000m, Jang Sung-woo (Hwaseong City Hall, 1 minute 28.304 seconds) overtook senior teammate Park Ji-won (Seoul City Hall, 1 minute 28.829 seconds) to claim gold, collecting his second gold after the mixed relay. However, medal hopes were dashed in the men's 5000m relay and women's 3000m relay events.
The men's team finished second but was disqualified after the last skater Park Ji-won was penalized for a foul during a physical clash with China's Lin Xiaojun. The women's team, which was leading, fell to fourth place after the last skater Kim Gil-ri collided with China's Gong Li and fell.
Korean short track dominated by winning 6 out of 9 gold medals in the entire competition, tying the record for the most gold medals ever won at the Asian Games, signaling a promising outlook for the Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics next year.
The speed skating team, led by the outstanding performances of the women's short-distance duo Kim Min-seon (Uijeongbu City Hall) and Lee Na-hyun (Korea National Sport University), secured 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal. Kim Min-seon won her first gold medal at the Winter Asian Games in her main event, the women's 500m, with a time of 38.24 seconds, while Lee Na-hyun added a silver medal with 38.33 seconds.
They then teamed up with Kim Min-ji (Hwaseong City Hall) in the team sprint, finishing the race in 1 minute 28.62 seconds to narrowly beat China (1 minute 28.85 seconds) by 0.23 seconds and claim the gold. Kim Min-seon took home two gold medals in one day, and Lee Na-hyun became a two-time champion following her win in the 100m the previous day.
In the men's 5000m, Lee Seung-hoon (Alpensia) aiming for a three-peat finished fourth with a time of 6 minutes 32.43 seconds.
Alpine skiing star Jung Dong-hyun (High1 Resort) earned a silver medal in the men's slalom event held at Yabuli Ski Resort, finishing second with a time of 1 minute 29.09 seconds behind Takayuki Koyama of Japan (1 minute 28.12 seconds).
Jung Dong-hyun, the men's slalom champion at the 2017 Sapporo Games, failed to defend his title but increased his total Asian Games medal count to four (2 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronze), including a gold and a bronze from the 2011 Astana-Almaty Games.
The women's ice hockey team advanced to the finals as the second in their group (3 wins, 1 loss, 9 points) after losing 0-1 in overtime to Kazakhstan in their last group stage match. Kazakhstan topped the group with 4 wins and 12 points. The women's ice hockey finals will be contested in a round-robin format among South Korea, Japan, China, and Kazakhstan.
The women's curling team, considered gold medal contenders (skip Kim Eun-ji, third Kim Min-ji, second Kim Su-ji, lead Seol Ye-eun, pips Seol Ye-ji), started the round robin with two comfortable wins, defeating Taiwan 11-0 and Japan 6-4.
The men's curling team (skip Lee Jae-beom, third Kim Hyo-jun, second Kim Ye-bin, lead Pyo Jeong-min, pips Kim Jin-hoon) won their first match 6-1 against the strong Philippines team, composed of naturalized players who were former Swiss national representatives.
In the women's 5km freestyle cross-country skiing, Han Da-som (Gyeonggi Provincial Office) recorded the highest placement among Korean athletes, finishing 11th with a time of 13 minutes 15.5 seconds. Mountain skiing, which was included as an official event for the first time at this competition, started with men's and women's sprints, but no Korean athletes reached the six-person finals. Host country China swept all gold, silver, and bronze medals in the women's cross-country freestyle and men's and women's mountain skiing sprints.
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