“With 2.5km left, I put myself in the fight for a medal but I think I went too fast because the last two hills were so hard. I lost a ridiculous amount of time.

“I was never going to be in the fight for a medal, but I probably should have got that fourth spot. But there isn’t a massive difference to sixth, without a medal.

“It was good, but I was still beaten by too many Norwegians.”

Musgrave, who relocated to Norway 17 years ago, was seventh in the skiathlon in 2018 – until now Team GB’s best result in the sport.

And as well as setting a new mark here, he is now only behind fellow Scot Mike Dixon – who competed in cross-country skiing and biathlon between 1984 and 2002 – when it comes to Games appearances for GB.

“Where I come from, we can do a bit of skiing occasionally,” Musgrave said. “But it’s not the same as being in Scandinavia or the Alps.

“So I don’t think we’re going to be the world’s biggest ski nation. But we’ve definitely put ourselves on the map as a cross-country nation and shown we can compete.”

Fellow Scot James Clugnet was also in the same race and finished 34th.