Alex Pullin survived a wild day of wipeouts to claim Australia's fifth medal at the world ski and snowboard championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain.
Snowboard cross rider Pullin finished third, pulling out all the stops in tricky conditions but failing to match the speed of long-time rival and 2014 Winter Olympics winner Pierre Vaultier who took gold.
The Victorian, a two-time world champion, made a desperate lunge at the line as he attempted to claim silver but local Lucas Eguibar held on by the narrowest of margins to finish behind the Frenchman.
"It was a pretty wild and tough day of racing," said Pullin of the course which was clearly affected by sustained warm weather in the Spanish mountains.
"I was just trying to work my way through the heats and not be a hero and get the job done.
"I put down a run (in the final) with absolutely zero regrets - I put it all on the line and gave it a good crack."
Pullin rode two smart races to make the semi-finals before incredibly surviving three near misses in the penultimate one to make the final where he was joined by surprise packet Adam Lambert.
A gifted junior racer, the 19 year-old from Jindabyne in the NSW Snowy Mountains only competed in his first World Cup race a month ago.
But after proving his race bona fides with wins in the quarter and semi-final he couldn't maintain the pace in the decider, crashing out to finish sixth.
Pullin's medal comes after gold to Scotty James (snowboard halfpipe) and Britt Cox (moguls), silver to Danielle Scott (aerials) and bronze to David Morris (aerials).
The five medal return of these championships surpasses the four achieved by Australia in 2015 (the year snowboarding and freestyle skiing combined for the one event) and 2013. In 2011 Australia also won five medals, four of which were gold.
It was a disappointing day for fellow Australians Jarryd Hughes and Cam Bolton, the former getting caught up in some soft snow on the edge of the course in their first heat, the subsequent bottleneck preventing both riders from making a play for a quarter-final berth.
Meanwhile, fellow Australian snowboard cross rider Belle Brockhoff confirmed she tore her ACL in training for the world championship.
Brockhoff, who had a breakout season and was in contention for the World Cup title, withdrew from the Sierra Nevada event and will now race the clock to be in shape for a meaningful tilt at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea in February.
