Chumpy Pullin takes snowboard cross bronze at world championships

Chumpy Pullin took bronze in snowboard cross as Australia continued to haul in the medals at the world championships.

Alex Pullin, second from left, in action in the snowboard cross in Sierra Nevada.

The Australian winter sports team have already equalled their best ever medal tally for the world freestyle skiing and snowboarding championships, after former world champion Alex “Chumpy’’ Pullin claimed the bronze medal in snowboard cross yesterday.

The Australians have now won five medals, including gold to moguls skier Britt Cox and half-pipe snowboarder Scotty James, which equals the 2011 team haul with other medal chances still to come.

Past slopestyle medallist Russ Henshaw and ski cross contender Sami Kennedy-Sim are still to compete this week.

Pullin maintained his excellent record at the world titles, adding a bronze medal to the two gold medals he has won previously (in 2011 and 2013).

It was very nearly the silver medal as Pullin found late speed and forced a photo-finish with second-placed Spaniard Lucas Eguibar.

Eguibar snuck past Pullin right on the line when the Australian miscalculated his finish. French Olympic champion Pierre Vault­ier demonstrated superior speed throughout the event to claim the gold medal.

But Pullin was happy to be back on the podium for the first time since 2013 on a course that suited goofy-footers Vaultier and Eguibar more than him.

“I knew the track here was going to be a little challenging racing wise, it was a pretty narrow race line and six-man heats was always going to prove to have some action,” Pullin said.

“I put some tactics in play early on just to move through the rounds and that seemed to work well so I stuck to that.’’

With the Olympics less than a year way, Pullin said he felt well-positioned to make another run at an Olympic medal after falling short three years ago in Sochi.

“I’m feeling positive about the way my body is (and) about how my mentality is with my racing,’’ he said.

“I’m working to expand my abilities in all conditions so when you do rock up to any course you can come away with a top three and that’s where I’m very happy about today.’’

Australia had two men in the six-man final after 19-year-old rookie Adam Lambert excelled at his first world titles. He did not lose a race until he reached the final when he finished sixth.

The big blow for the snowboard cross team was that world No 2-ranked female rider Belle Brockhoff injured her knee in the lead-up to the event and was unable to compete.

Brockhoff has been diagnosed with an anterior cruciate ligament injury which will need ­surgery and several months of rehabilitation, which could affect her preparation for the Olympics.

Despite that piece of misfortune, the winter team has had an excellent international season.

The only time that Australia has won five world championships medals in one year previously was in 2011, but Olympic Winter Institute chief Geoff ­Lipshut regards this as a superior performance.

He argues that the world titles are stronger in the year before the Olympic Games, than they are in the year after (when many leading athletes bypass them), and that several of the events are of much higher standard than they were six years ago.