Chumpy roars up snowboard ranks

Australia’s Alex “Chumpy” Pullin went within centimetres of snatching victory in a photo finish with American dual Olympic gold medallist Seth Wescott in the snowboard cross World Cup final in Telluride, USA.

As the only snowboard cross athlete to make both finals contested this season, the Australian Institute of Sport athlete jumps to number two in the world, just 20 points behind the leader, Italian Omar Visintin.

Given the nightmare lead up to today’s World Cup, Pullin showed enormous maturity and grit to power his way into second place, ahead of Canadian Christopher Robanske in third.

It was not until 3am on race day that his equipment arrived at Telluride, a result of an airline mishap.

Throughout the week Pullin trained on borrowed boots and bindings and had to deal with the mental strain of working out how to cope with the possibility of racing with untried equipment that was not entirely suited to his needs.

But despite the difficult preparation, Pullin’s performance in Telluride was excellent  – a fast qualifying and wins in each of his three knock out races leading into the final.

As well as praising Pullin’s photo finish in the final, AIS snowboard head coach Ben Wordsworth was thrilled by the 25-year-old Victorian’s quarter final and semi-final, when he defeated Wescott in both races and also former World Champion Markus Schairer in the semi.

Coming from third place in the semi, Pullin mounted a charge in the closing stages of the race to maneuvre his way to the lead.

“Chumpy really stepped up today and showed real professionalism,” Wordsworth said.

“The mental strain that he faced when the bags went missing for four days was something he dealt with but it was difficult.

“Today was a great result and now we have our eyes firmly on the World Championships. That’s the one we want. ”

Pullin now heads home to Australia for Christmas before going back to Canada to continue his preparation for his World Championship defence, a title he won in 2011, at the Canadian resort of Stoneham from January 17 to 27.

Aussies impress at Skeleton World Cup

Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder, Lucy Chaffer, has finished fifth in round five of the Skeleton World Cup in La Plagne, France.

The 29-year old West Australian put in two consistent runs, moving from eighth to fifth after improving her time by nearly three tenths of a second on her second run.

Her team-mate, Michelle Steele, 26, also performed solidly, making a similar improvement on her second run to maintain her ninth place.

The two Australians were separated by just 0.09 of a second after the first run, with Chaffer just in front in eighth place.

They made similar improvements on their second pass down the 1507 metre track, with Chaffer climbing more places as some of the more fancied sliders made errors and dropped back.

“I was happy with the day and felt like I drove closer to where I know I can,” Chaffer said.

“I had two solid runs and it’s a great way to go into the Christmas break.”

Steele was pleased to continue her return to form after a 12 month break away from the sport.

“I was happy to finish in the top 10 with this being my first time at this track,” she said.

“I’m now looking forward to a short Christmas break, before the World Cup resumes in January.”

After five rounds of the FIBT Skeleton World Cup, Chaffer and Steele are ninth and 10th respectively in the overall standings.

Held at the venue of the 1992 Olympic Winter Games, the La Plagne track is situated high in the French Alps.

American, Katie Uhlaender, won the event by the convincing margin of 0.49 of a second, ahead of Sarah Reid (Canada) and Marion Thees (Germany) who finished in a dead-heat for second place.

Olympic Winter Institute