He was the fastest out of the eight teams! 男 Short Track Runs to the 1st place finish in the 5,000m relay... It's the first time in 20 years [the scene of Milan]

*This content was translated by AI.

The Korean men's short track team has settled in the final of the 5,000-meter relay.

The men's relay team consisting of Lee Joon-seo (Seongnam City Hall), Im Jong-eon (Goyang City Hall), Lee Jung-min (Seongnam City Hall), and Shin Dong-min (Hwaseong City Hall) advanced to the final with a time of 6:52.708 in the men's 5,000m relay semi-finals at the '2026 Milan-Cortina D'Ampezzo Winter Olympics Short Track' held at the Milan Ice Skating Arena in Italy on the 16th (local time). This is the fastest record among the eight countries that competed in Group 1 and 2 of the semifinals.

As a result, South Korea will face the Netherlands (6:52.751), the "traditional rival" Canada (6:54.075), which passed the first group, and host Italy (6:54.454) at 5:30 a.m. on the 21st.

South Korea, which started the race with the Netherlands, Japan and Belgium, saw the opportunity to finish fourth until it had 39 laps to go. Lee Jun-seo then began a full-fledged chase. He rose to third place with 33 laps to go. There was also a crisis that Shin Dong-min fell back to fourth place, but Lee Jung-min jumped two steps at once to secure second place with 24 laps left.

The final five laps were decided. South Korea, which was struggling to attack the out course due to the check of the leading Netherlands, finally managed to regain the lead with Lee Jung-min's bold in-course breakthrough without missing a gap.

South Korea, which took the lead, then widened the gap with Shin Dong-min, and after veteran Lee Jun-seo, Im Jong-eon came in first in the group, running the last two laps perfectly.

South Korea became the first champion at the 1992 Albertville Games with the adoption of an official men's relay event. He was then the world's strongest until the 2006 Turin Games. However, he failed to win a gold medal for the next 20 years. Silver medals at the 2010 Vancouver and 2022 Beijing Games are the best.

Expectations are high on whether South Korea, which has proved its best condition, will be able to stand at the highest level of the Olympic podium in 20 years.

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*This content was translated by AI.