Rubbish and terrible. By the sound of it you would have thought Andrew Musgrave had fallen over or finished last – not made history as Britain’s greatest ever cross-country skier at the Olympics in Sochi.
By winning the sprint in the Norwegian championships a matter of weeks ago, the 23-year-old, from Oyne, jetted into Russia riding the crest of the wave having upset the best cross-country ski-ing nation in Winter Olympic history.
However, the writing was on Musgrave’s wall – if no one else’s – as early as the qualification round of the sprint that such an achievement would not be matched. The Aberdeenshire skier placed 27th for Great Britain in 3:37.75 minutes.
He was still given a favourable draw in his quarter-final and started as he planned to by taking the lead – although a steep last hill in an already punishing 1.8km proved too much.
Musgrave fell from third to last and effectively walked over the finishing line well behind the five other athletes before expressing his utter disappointment at failing at such a stage.
Just by getting to that stage Musgrave became Britain’s greatest yet cross-country skier. But he had been adamant a medal was his.
Musgrave, who claimed finishes of 51st, 55th and 58th on his Olympic debut in Vancouver in 2010, said: “I wouldn’t call that the definition of a good go. I just didn’t have the day, the prologue went pretty rubbish.
“I skied terrible, that’s the word to describe it. I just didn’t have anything to give over the hills or anywhere basically. It wasn’t me on a good day.
“In the first quarter-final the guy that won it took the lead at the start and managed to stay in command the whole way and cruised into the finish.
“That was my plan. I got to the front at the start but as soon as we got on to the big, long hill I just realised that it was going to be a bit of a rubbish day.
“This course here should be the course. It is an amazing course for me and if I’m having a good day I should be able to beat anyone in the world.
“It is a bit hard to swallow right now. If I was in the same shape that I was at the Norwegians I think I would have been fighting for a place on the podium.
“I am never going to be happy with this, it was basically terrible.”
All four of Britain’s cross-country skiers, who are all members of the Huntly Nordic Ski Club, were in action in the sprint with Andrew Young disappointed at placing 42nd in qualifying and missing out on the top 30 that reached the knockout stages.
Callum Smith, not being a sprinter, felt better about his 62nd while Andrew’s older sister, Posy, looked on the positive side of placing above her ranking with a 42nd when again the top 30 was required.
She said: “I ended up slightly up on my ranking and anytime you can do that it is not a bad race. I knew it would be really tough to get into the top 30.
“I would have liked to have done it but I would have had to have had the best race of my life.”
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