Slopes of gold

NSWIS athletes Holly Crawford and Nate Johnstone have become Australia’s latest snowboard world champions, less than two days after fellow NSWIS athlete Alex Pullin became Australia’s first ever snowboard world champion.

Competing in the women’s half-pipe, Crawford tallied 26.7 points to finish three points clear of Switzerland’s Ursina Haller and China’s Jiayu Liu. The win sees her improve on the silver medal she won at the 2009 FIS Snowboard World Championships, as well as an eighth place finish at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

Johnstone, only a youngster at 20 years of age, scored 26.8 points on his first run to secure victory by only 0.6 points ahead of Iouri Podladtchikov of Switzerland and Finland’s Markus Malin. Johnstone’s result will go a long way in erasing the memories of fracturing his ankle only days before the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

Australia’s three gold medals this week, coupled with Torah Bright’s gold medal heroics at the Vancouver Games now have the nation placed as a powerhouse in world snowboarding.