Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) athletes Nathan Johnstone and Holly Crawford have each claimed a gold medal in the snowboard halfpipe at the 2011 FIS Snowboard World Championships. The championships took place in La Molina, Spain from 14 to 23 January.

These wins followed Alex Pullin's magnificent gold medal performance in the men's snowboard cross event on 18 January. Pullin is the first Australian to win a world championship title in snowboarding.

Holly Crawford claimed her gold in the women's halfpipe on 21 January. The 26-year-old took the lead in her first run and finished with a final score of 26.7 points. She beat Switzerland's Ursina Haller on 25.8 points and China's Jiayu Liu on 22.5.

'The important thing today was staying calm,' Crawford said. 'A number of the other girls looked like they were pushing it a little too hard. I remained relaxed and did the basics as well as possible, which is what we have been focusing on in practice.'

Later that day Nathan Johnstone took the overall lead in the men's halfpipe, after performing some spectacular tricks in his opening run. The 20-year-old won gold with a final score of 26.8 points, ahead of Switzerland's Iouri Podladtchikov on 26.2 points and Finland's Markus Malin on 24.3 points.

It is a remarkable comeback for Johnstone who has been recovering from an ankle injury that forced him to miss out on the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Both AIS scholarship holders are based at the NSW Perisher Blue resort.

Australian halfpipe snowboard head coach Ben Alexander said that one of the keys to the AIS athletes' success was keeping the 'fun' element in training.

'Obviously hard work is important but we have been concentrating on making sure they continue to enjoy their snowboarding,' Alexander said. 'It's important to keep it simple and keep going big. Today they had good amplitude and great execution.'