Indian skier Jagdish Singh on Friday finished a dismal 103rd in the men's 15-km free cross-country race at his debut Winter Olympics here, ending another disappointing campaign for the country at the quadrennial extravaganza.
The 26-year-old Jagdish clocked 43.03 minutes to be the 103rd skier to cross the finish line in a line-up of 119 at the Alpensia Cross-Country Skiing Centre.
Jagdish's time was 9:16.4 minutes slower than Switzerland's Dario Cologna, who took his third straight Olympic gold by clocking 33:43.9. Norway's Simen Krueger (34:02.2) won the silver, while Denis Spitsov (34:06.9), an Olympic Athlete from Russia, took home the bronze.
The disappointing finish aside, it was quite a feat for Jagdish to even compete at the Games. He almost didn't make it after the Winter Games Federation of India (WGFI) and his employer, the Indian Army, delayed his departure until the 11th hour over the nomination of a coach to accompany him.
The Indian, who trains at the High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) at Gulmarg, was around 40 seconds slower than the leader at the initial 1.5km mark but the gap widened as the race progressed.
At the halfway stage, Jagdish was 4:28 minutes slower than the leader and the gap kept increasing though he was able to finish a few places above his 116th position start.
In cross-country skiing, athletes have to glide across a 15 km-long path on a snow-covered field in the shortest possible time. The track has uphill, level and downhill terrains.
The end of his campaign also ended India's run at the Games. The country was being represented by only two athletes. On February 11, Shiva Keshavan had finished 34th in the men's luge singles event in his sixth and last Winter Olympics.
India have not produced any worthwhile performance in the Winter Olympics with Keshavan's six appearances being the nation's only remarkable achievement.
India took part in the Winter Olympics for the first time in 1964 in Innsbruck, Austria, where Jeremy Bujakowski, an alpine skier of Polish descent, represented the country.
He was there in the 1968 Games as well in Grenoble (France) before Shailaja Kumar, Gul Dev and Kishor Rahtna Rai -- all alpine skiers -- took part in the 1988 edition in Calgary, Canada.
Keshavan then took the mantle of carrying the Indian flag in six Winter Olympics from 1998 in Nagano, Japan to Pyeongchang this time.
Mayer ends Norway dominance
Austrias Matthias Mayer stunned Norways skiers with a thrilling mens super-G victory at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Friday, breaking a Norwegian stranglehold which dates back to 2002.
Mayer seized the lead from Norwegian defending champion Kjetil Jansrud with a blistering descent of 1min 24.44sec. Switzerlands Beat Feuz took silver, 0.13sec adrift, while Jansrud had to settle for bronze.
The Sochi 2014 downhill winner Mayer trumps his father, Helmut, who won super-G silver in 1988, and emerges victorious just three days after he ploughed into bystanders during the combined event.
Norwegian skiers had won five of the eight previous Olympic super-G races, including the last four, and appeared to have locked up another victory when Jansrud bombed down in 1.24:62.
But Mayer, 27, mastered the course to outpace Jansrud by 0.18sec before downhill world champion Feuz, the next man to descend, grabbed second place.