Andrew Musgrave hit out at the “ridiculous” decision to reduce Saturday’s Olympic men’s 50km cross-country race to 30km due to plunging temperatures in Zhangjiakou.

The four-time Olympian had pinned his medal hopes on the notoriously attritional conclusion to the Nordic programme, but organisers took the decision to shorten it as the mercury hit minus 17 degrees.

The move angered Musgrave, who expressed his displeasure in a pre-event tweet before going on to finish 12th, two minutes behind Russian winner Alexander Bolshunov, who took his third gold of the Games.

“I thought it was a ridiculous decision,” said Musgrave. “If it’s warm enough to race then I don’t see why doing an hour and a quarter or 30km, compared to two hours in the 50km, makes it any better.

“It’s still the same temperature, it’s still the same wind. I haven’t got a clue why they did it. To be honest, I don’t know what they were thinking. It seems a little bit strange to me.”

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