Pullin & Kennedy-Sim victorious in ANCs at Mt Hotham over the weekend

Sochi Olympians Sami Kennedy-Sim and Alex ’Chumpy’ Pullin both secured double victories in pristine conditions at the Australian New Zealand Cup events at Mount Hotham over the weekend.

After wins at the first two Ski Cross Australia NZ Cup races at Mount Buller in early July, Kennedy-Sim matched that result in Hotham for a clean sweep of the series.

With the World Cup season kicking off in December, the 29-year-old is using this season to iron out any kinks in her performance to ensure she is in an optimal state during the Olympic qualification period.

“I was using the Hotham ANC race to try and apply the technical changes I have made in training, into the race environment,” the Sydney-sider said.

“Some things worked and others did not - the best training for racing is racing!”

In both races at Hotham, Nikol Kucherova of the Czech Republic won silver, and USA’s Mazie Harden rounded out the podium in third.

Lily Speiser was the next best placed Aussie, finishing sixth in Race one and fifth in Race two.

In the men’s Ski Cross events, New Zealander Jamie Prebble took out Race one, followed by USA’s Tyler Wallasch and Brant Crossan in second and third. Robbie Marrison was the first placed Aussie in fifth place.

Race two saw Wallasch increase his standing to take home gold, followed by fellow American Erik Sparkowski and Australia’s Doug Crawford in third.

The weekend’s competition wraps up the Southern Hemisphere season for Kennedy-Sim.

“I now enter a big strength and conditioning block, and then depart for Europe at the end of the month to train alongside the Canadian team.

“World Cup season kicks off early December so I am looking forward to that,” she said.

In the men’s Snowboard Cross events, Chumpy added his two gold medals to his gold and bronze from the first Australia NZ Cup races in July.

Fellow PyeongChang 2018 hopefuls Matt Thomas and Adam Lambert rounded out the podium respectively in both races.

In the women’s events, the field opened up with top riders Belle Brockhoff and Georgia Baff sidelined due to injury.

Seventeen year-old Emily Boyce took out both races, followed by Christina Taylor in second and Georgia Crisp in third.

Pullin and his fellow PyeongChang 2018 hopefuls will now join Australian teammate Jarryd Hughes in Argentina for the first World Cup event from 8-10 September.