Bengaluru, February 16: India's campaign at the ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 came to a grinding halt as skier Arif Khan, the lone competitor from the country at the Games, ended with a Did Not Finish (DNF) men's slalom event on Wednesday (February 16).

It may be recalled that India had sent a six-member contingent to the Beijing 2022 Games including a coach, a technician and a team manager with the 31-year-old Arif, being the lone competitor at the Games, having qualified in Slalom and Giant Slalom events.

On Wednesday, at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre, Arif failed to complete his first run, thereby ruling him out of the second run.

For the records, Arif, who held the Indian tri-colour flag at the Opening Ceremony, was the first Indian to secure qualification in two events of the same edition of the Games.

Born in Kashmir's Baramulla district, Arif took up skiing quite early in life, winning his first national slalom championship at the age of just 12. He later went on to win two gold medals in the Slalom and Giant Slalom events of the South Asian Winter Games in 2011.

He has also participated in both the editions of the Khelo India Winter Games held in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir. Arif's inspiration was his father Yasin Khan, who owns a ski equipment shop in Gulmarg, a popular tourist destination in Jammu and Kashmir.

Previously, India's Winter Olympics campaigns have been identified with one man -veteran luge athlete Shiva Keshavan, who represented the country in six editions of the mega-event. The 40-year-old from Manali, Himachal Pradesh has now taken up the role of promoting winter sports in India.

Norway leads

Meanwhile, it was good day for Norway as they claimed three gold medals to increase their lead in the medal table.

Five Norwegian athletes won medals as the Scandinavian nation took their total tally for the Games to 26.

Winter Olympics: Three golds increase Norway's lead, Germany claim first clean sweep

Norway have secured 12 Olympic titles in the Chinese capital, three more than second-placed Germany.

BEIJING GAMES MEDALS TALLY

Joergen Graabak was crowned Nordic combined champion for Norway and compatriot Jens Luraas took silver at the end of a dramatic 10-kilometre cross-country skiing race.

Jarl Magnus Riiber led the way for Norway after topping the ski jump standings on the large hill at the National Ski Jumping Centre, but took a wrong turn when he had an advantage of 44 seconds in the cross-country skiing.

Riiber turned around after realising he had gone off track and was left to rue a huge lapse, which his countryman Graabak capitalised on. Norway also won men's biathlon gold in the 4x7.5km relay event and took the men's team pursuit speed skating title.

German bobsleigh legend Francesco Friedrich led the first podium clean sweep of these Games in the two-man competition at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre.

Johannes Lochner won silver and Christoph Hafer took bronze as Germany took their medal tally to 18, half of which have been gold.

There were no gold medals for third-placed USA, but Anna Gasser won Austria's sixth of the Games in the snowboard big air final.The Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 which began on February 4 amidst a diplomatic row, concludes on Saturday (February 20).

(With inputs from Agencies)