Snowboarder Scotty James won Australia’s first silver medal of the Beijing Games in a hard-fought battle with Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, the rival who pushed him into third place at the last Olympics four years ago.

James shot to the lead after a complex series of twists and rotations in his second of three runs down the 220-metre halfpipe gave him a 92.5-point score that Hirano failed to top with his own 91.75-point run.