MT Buller snowboarder Scotty James just fell short of recording a historic fourth straight halfpipe World Championship gold medal, claiming the silver medal at the weekend in Aspen, USA.
The 26-year-old from Warrandyte (but snowboards at Buller) put down an impressive opening run scoring 90.50 points to lead all competitors after the first round of finals.
In his second run, James had another strong performance scoring 86.50 but was unable to better his first run in the best of two finals format.
Going past James in the second run was Yuto Totsuka from Japan who moved into first place with a score of 93 points.
Totsuka increased his score on his third and final run with a huge 96.25 points to take the gold medal.
Rounding out the podium in the bronze medal position was Jan Scherrer of Switzerland who scored 87 points in his final run.
“Happy to come out here representing Australia doing the best I can, and that is really what I did today and that was a second place,” said James, the 2018 Olympic bronze medallist.
“Today I learnt a lot of lessons and things I will be able to move forward and put into play when I go into my offseason. I have tricks I want to achieve, and I will be back to where I want to be.
“Huge thank you to everyone back home that has been supporting me to this day.
“I wish I could have brought back a gold medal but give me a little bit of time and I will do no doubt do it again.”
And Laura Peel added another title to her impressive season, securing back-to-back aerial skiing World Cup Crystal Globes after finishing sixth in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The 31-year-old double World Champion from Canberra now joins legends of the sport Jacqui Cooper and Alisa Camplin as multiple World Cup champions.
“It’s been a massive week, but honestly I could not have asked for more, I started the season with the yellow leader's bib and to finish with the yellow bib and a World Championship win is the dream ending really," Peel said.
Joining Peel in the super final was teammate Danielle Scott who finished in fifth place, with Gabi Ash in ninth after earlier qualifying for finals in a personal best fourth place.