India's Jagdish Singh today finished a dismal 103rd in the men's 15-km free cross-country skiing race at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, bringing down the curtains on the country's familiar disastrous show in the quadrennial Games.


The 26-year-old Jagdish, who was making his Olympic debut, clocked 43.03 minutes while crossing the finish line at the Alpensia Cross-Country Skiing Centre to end his race at 103rd out of 119 competitors. Jagdish's time was 9:16.4 minutes slower than Switzerlands Dario Cologna, who took his third straight Olympic gold with a time of 33:43.9. Norways Simen Krueger (34:02.2) won the silver while Denis Spitsov (34:06.9), an Olympic Athlete from Russia, took home the bronze.


The Indian, who trains at the High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) at Gulmarg, was around 40 seconds slower than the leader in the initial 1.5 km mark but the gap widened as the race progressed.


At the halfway mark, Jagdish was 4:28 minutes slower than the leader and the time gap went on 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. India is being represented by only two athletes in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. On February 11, Shiva Keshavan had finished 34th in the men's luge singles event in his sixth and last Winter Olympics. -- PTI