Andrew Musgrave battled through “horrifically hard” conditions to finish 17th in the men’s skiathlon at the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Sunday.

The 31-year-old’s hopes of challenging for a medal at his fourth Games were effectively ended by a lightning-fast start by Russian gold medallist Alexander Bolshunov.

Musgrave, who finished seventh in the same event in Pyeongchang, slid away from the leaders in the early stages and paid tribute to Bolshunov, who held off his compatriot Denis Spitsov to win by 71 seconds.

“It’s one of the slowest 30kms I’ve ever done,” said Musgrave. “It felt horrifically hard but I just blew up after three laps there. It was a bit of a wild race.

“I wasn’t feeling too bad but the form Bolshunov is in at the moment is absolutely wild. That’s one of the most ridiculous races that’s ever been done. We’re going to have to do something miraculous to beat him.”

Musgrave, who will now set his sights on his favoured men’s 50km later in the Games, revealed cross-country team-mate Andrew Young was late to arrive in Beijing after testing positive for coronavirus last month.

Young landed on Sunday and delivered the required negative test, and will now be allowed to compete in his first event, the men’s sprint, on Tuesday.

Musgrave added: “He got Covid a few days before he was due to come out but it didn’t seem to last for too long.

“He was feeling bad for a couple of days but got back into training fairly quickly and produced the negative tests he needed. He was in super-good form before he got it and he didn’t seem to lose too many days.”