Callum Smith praises "hard" competition in men's skiathlon

By Giuseppe Labellarte, Reporter | 09 February 2014

Great Britain's cross-country skier Callum Smith, who finished 62nd in today's Olympic men's skiathlon, praises the standard of the competition.

Great Britain cross-country skier Callum Smith has praised the standard of the competition in today's skiathlon at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The 21-year-old finished 62nd in the 30km cross-country skiing event in a time of 1:17:37.1.

"My race was pretty tough," Smith told BBC Sport. "It was okay but maybe not my best performance ever. I started off pretty hard and I think maybe that was a little bit of a mistake. I was therefore pretty tired for the last 10km.

"The selection to get into this race is pretty hard, a lot of the smaller nations don't even compete. Even not to be at the back you have got to do reasonably well.

"I would have definitely have liked to have been in the top 60, it was okay, it was certainly not a bad race, it just wasn't my best."

Dario Cologna of Switzerland won gold with a time of 1:08:15.4, a fraction ahead of silver medallist Marcus Hellner of Sweden, who managed 1:08:15.8. The bronze went to Norwegian Martin Sundby.