Arif finishes 45th in Winter Games

Beijing: India’s lone participant

in the Winter Olympics, alpine skier Arif Khan, finished 45th in the giant slalom event here on Sunday. The 31-year-old from

Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir clocked a combined time of 2 minute 47.24 seconds from two races in difficult weather conditions. Khan, who was making his Winter Olympics debut, ended at 53rd in Race 1 with a time of

1:22.35 out of the 54 competitors who could finish it. As many as 33 skiers could not finish Race 1 while two did not start. Khan queued up 85th in the start list of 89 athletes from

62 nations. Khan did better in Race 2 as he clocked 1:24.89, ending at 44th

out of 45 skiers who could complete it. Nine skiers failed to finish Race 2. His combined time, which saw him finish 45th overall, was 37.89 seconds

behind gold winner Marco Odermatt of Switzerland, who clocked a combined time of

2:09.35.