POOLE-BORN Andrew Musgrave missed out on a medal at the Winter Olympics after he exited the men's Cross Country Sprint at the quarter-final stage.

The 23-year-old Team GB star this morning squeezed into the top 30, finishing 27th in a field of 86 skiers in Sochi. 

However, despite significantly improving on his performance in Vancouver four years ago, Musgrave found the competition too fierce in the next session and finished second-bottom of the 30-man leaderboard, some 12 seconds over the qualifying time. 

Now based in Trondheim, Norway, Musgrave was Britain’s best cross country performer in Vancouver, finishing 51st in the 30km pursuit, 55th in the individual freestyle and 58th in the individual sprint.

Two years previously, he became the first British skier to earn a top 10 place in a world class cross country event, finishing ninth in the World Junior Championships in France and has gone from strength to strength since his last Olympic odyssey.

Last month he warmed up for Sochi by beating a host of World Cup winners, finishing first in the Norwegian National Championships but was ineligible for the gold medal because of his nationality.