Josie Baff has stunned the world with silver at her first FIS World Championships. The Aussie snowboarder is having a stellar season with gold in the FIS World Cup SBX in France in December and silver at the FIS World Cup in Italy two weeks later.
Baff was in good form in the early SBX World Champs heats, winning her round of 32 and quarter-final races to advance through to the semi-finals.
She crossed the line in second place in the semis to advance through to the big-final medal round, up against past Olympic gold medallists Lindsey Jacobellis of the USA and Eva Adamczykova of the Czech Republic.
Baff moved from third place to second halfway down the course in the big-final and managed to find space and comfortably remain in the silver medal position from that point to the finish line, finishing behind Adamczykova who took the victory with Jacobellis in third place.
“I kind of just let out a little squeal, and I was like, wow this is really, really cool, and then after a few minutes it sunk in and I kind of realised what I had done,” said the 20-year-old Jindabyne rider.
“It was a long day, and the runs were long and exhausting, so I was really happy that my legs were able to hold it together for that last run.
“It’s really nice to have this medal and I’m so grateful for my coaching team and the wax technicians who did an amazing job of making my boards speedy, so I’m very happy.”
