Australia ninth in Snowboard Cross team's event
Published Tue 14 Mar 2017
The Australian team of Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin and Adam Lambert have finished ninth in the Snowboard Cross team’s event at the 2017 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships.
Both riders were on a high after qualifying for Sunday’s big final where Pullin won bronze and Lambert finished sixth. There was double reason for celebration with Australia the only nation to have two riders in the mix in the medal deciding race.
In order to advance in Monday’s team event, the Aussies needed to finish first or second in a heat against Spain and one of Austria's two teams in the field.
19-year-old Adam Lambert was first out of the gate and he got the Aussies off to a good start, keeping pace with the Austrian and Spanish riders but crossing the line in third.
Pullin was out next and with the course offering minimal opportunities for passing, the Aussies finished third by a small margin and did not progress to the semi-finals.
“We come away clean, happy and buzzing off that result yesterday and really looking forward to the last World Cup,” Pullin said.
“The team race has a lot to do with how you can balance the team’s best and me and Adam have a good team,” he said.
With conditions deteriorating the job was never going to be easy.
“We got up here and the conditions were tough, they delayed it because of the visibility being so bad, it’s a lot slower and the wind was pretty rough,” Pullin said.
With one World Cup still to race, Pullin is focused on finishing his season on a high but he wanted to give his young team-mate another opportunity to race.
“It (the World Cup) was my immediate focus after yesterday’s result concluded. My eyes are set on that,” he said.
“I had a really good day of racing yesterday and it was pretty taxing but I also think that it was a really good opportunity for Adam to race another heat, he’s in good form.”
The ultimate Snowboard Cross World Cup event for the 2016/17 season will be held in Veysonnaz (SUI).
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