Huntly cross-country skier Andrew Young on why his fourth Winter Olympic Games was most special yet

Andrew Young says his fourth Olympics meant more than the rest despite an early team sprint exit ending a disappointing Beijing campaign.

The Huntly star harboured hopes of a push for the final alongside James Clugnet in the short-distance event but they ended prematurely in the first round.

The Team GB pair finished tenth in a field of 13 at the semi-final stage and were 56 seconds shy of a top four place that would have seen them through to the final.

Clugnet’s ski pole broke on the second lap which scuppered their challenge and left them with an overall ranking of 20th.

“It was a tough one,” said Clugnet. “I broke the pole when things started getting serious and the pace was going up.

“I used quite a bit of my energy to try and keep up with the group but I didn’t manage to.

“And then I got so tired, and here at altitude, when you get tired, you never recover and I didn’t. We needed to have a perfect race today with everything going our way to qualify.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t give the relay to Andrew in a good position so we couldn’t make it through.”

There was one pyrrhic victory as Young managed to hold off the challenge of minnows Australia in the closing stages.

“That’s a 1-0 victory in the cross-country skiing Ashes I think,” joked Young. “Even if today is not our best performance, we can take that as a positive!”

It has been a bitterly disappointing Games for Britain’s cross-country skiers so far, although Andrew Musgrave has one final chance to impress in Saturday’s 50km event.

Young was relieved to simply have made the start line in Beijing having tested positive for Covid in mid-January, meaning his participation was in doubt right until the last minute.

Sprint specialist Young finished 36th in qualification