World Cup snowboard silver for Australia’s Cam Bolton

Australia’s Cam Bolton has raced to the fifth podium finish of his career, holding off Olympic champion Alessandro Haemmerle to take snowboard cross silver at the World Cup in Georgia.

Keen to make up for a disappointing 52nd place finish at the previous World Cup event in St Moritz, the three-time Olympian from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula put himself among the medals for the first time in two years.

Having won his round of 32, quarter-final and semi-final races on the Gudauri course, Bolton was in flying form going into his first big final of the season.

World No.1 Eliot Grondin, from Canada, led the medal race from start to finish, with Bolton and Austria’s Beijing 2022 gold medallist Haemmerle trying in vain to chase him down.

The 33-year-old Bolton moved ahead of Haemmerle in the bottom half of the course to take silver, with the Austrian settling for bronze.

“The course was super fun, but definitely not easy to stay in front,” Bolton said.

“It was really close, but fun racing.

“(I was) stoked to make it to the big final, and it was close on that second last turn, but some really good racing … really enjoyable.”

Also in action for Australia in the men’s event was Adam Lambert, seventh in the small final, while Jarryd Hughes recorded his best result of the season in 12th place.

In the women’s event, 2023 world championship medallist Josie Baff was the best-placed Australian making it through to the small final in sixth. Belle Brockhoff was 10th in the quarter-final round.

The snowboard cross athletes will be back in action on Sunday (Monday AEDT) in Gudauri, with a second World Cup event to take place.