CROSS COUNTRY SKIING: Australia’s Phil Bellingham and Callum Watson have finished 55^th and 85^th in Men’s Sprint Free Cross Country event at the Laura Cross Country and Biathlon Centre. 

Needing to make the top 30 to progress, Bellingham finished in a time of 3:45.65 to miss out on the Quarter Finals by 7.77 seconds while sitting 17.3 seconds off Norwegian leader Ola Vigen Hattestad. 

Watson finished just over two minutes off the lead in a time of 5:29.62 after being one of many athletes to not handle the sloppy conditions as he hit the wall after a tight turn. He managed to pick himself up before taking his time to complete the course. 

For Bellingham, he gave his favourite event everything he had. Although he didn’t reach his ultimate goal of making it past the qualification phase, he was happy with how his Olympic debut played out. 

“For me it was a pretty good race,” said the 22-year-old.

“I went in ranked 58^th so I was pretty happy to come out just in front of my rank.”

“It was pretty exciting to make my Olympic debut. This morning I was shaking and really nervous but I’m happy I’ve done it now.”

Coming onto the course after the Women’s Sprint Free Qualification and in sunny conditions ensured that the testing circuit was going to be even more difficult.

“It was super tough out there. 

“It was super soft and there were some spills but luckily I wasn’t one of them.”

Unfortunately Watson was not as lucky after going down on a turn that troubled many athletes. 

"I saw the Chinese competitor crash there before I started so I knew I was going to have to be careful through there," said the 24-year-old.

"I tried to take it easy through there but it was so slushy and all of a sudden I was head down in the snow." 

In positive news Watson was not seriously injured and was looking forward to favourite event, the Men's 15km Individual Classic on Friday.

"I am in a bit of pain but I will have to manage it to make sure it does not get any worse. 

"I am happy that this happened in this event and not in the 15km which is more my style. 

For Sprint specialist Bellingham the 15km Individual Classic is going to be one of the toughest races of his career. 

“Today was probably my best chance to go well but tomorrow I’ll have the day off and rest up and then the next day I will go for a light ski in preparation for the next race.”

Callum Watson's sister Aimee who came into her first Olympic Games nursing an injury was also confident that she would make her Olympic debut in the Women's 10km Classic on Thursday after missing the Skiathlon.

Esther Bottomley made Cross Country history as the first Australian female to compete in three Olympic Games. She was 56th in her Sprint event>>>

The Finals were continuing through Tuesday afternoon (local time).