Australian snowboarder Joh Shaw has made the first semi-final result of her career, just missing a bronze medal in the parallel slalom in Bad Gastein, Austria.

Shaw finished fourth, eclipsing her previous best PSL result by eight places and climbing to 14th place on the world rankings.

The 25-year-old Brighton rider qualified in 12th place overall, drawing a quarter-final head-to-head encounter with world number one Heidi Neururer.

Unfazed, she defeated the Austrian by 0.99 seconds on the first run, then followed up with a narrow 0.18 second win in the second run.

In the quarter-finals, Shaw came back from a first run deficit to defeat last start winner and world junior champion Julia Dujmovits, also of Austria, before losing to Nicolien Sauerbreij of the Netherlands in the semi-final.

In the bronze medal ride she again went down to yet another Austrian, this time the former world number two Doris Guenther, but she ended the day more than satisfied with the career-best performance.

“It feels fantastic, it’s so great,” Shaw said.

“In the round of eight final I was the underdog against Heidi (Neururer) and had nothing to lose. So I tried to go as fast as possible and I did it.”

Shaw will contest a parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom events in La Molina, Spain, next weekend.