Scotty James's snowboard halfpipe gold medal dream at Beijing Olympics ended thanks to magical run from Ayumu Hirano

Scotty James was close, so, so close to an Olympic gold that would have elevated him to sporting immortality.

After two runs, James led the field, topping the scoring, despite Ayumu Hirano nailing a mythical triple cork in his second run.

When Hirano's score was revealed it sent a ripple of disapproval through the crowd, some of whom even started to boo.

But Hirano — unbowed by being given a score 0.75 points less than James — instead sent down an even more spectacular run as the final rider of the day.

Seeing that one triple cork was not enough, Hirano incredibly threw in two consecutive triples on his final run to give the judges no option but to hand him a deserved gold medal.

James said he never watches his opponent's runs and today was no different, but he must have been the only one who wasn't gazing up through the pipe at the Genting Snow Park, watching on in awe as the diminutive Japanese rider re-wrote what was possible on a snowboard.

«I knew what he was capable of and he landed a fantastic run,» James said of the now three-time Olympic medallist.

«I definitely was expecting him to deliver something really good.»

Australia's sixth-place finisher, Val Guseli, was more effusive.

«It was beautiful,» the 16-year-old said.

«It was flawless and I think it's going to be very hard to beat him for a very long time because he's just insane.»

Hirano's run was insane, defying logic to risk everything with one of the most dangerous tricks ever attempted — one that athletes describe as being one without any room for error — not once, but twice in a single run.

The halfpipe final has become one of the blue ribband events of the Winter Games – the mix zone in Zhangjiakou was more packed than for any other event so far and the drama was