Snowboarder Alex Pullin, an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS)/Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) athlete, has claimed his second major international snowboard cross title this year at the 2011 FIS Snowboard World Cup final held in Arosa, Switzerland, on 25 March.

The 23-year-old Pullin added the snowboard cross World Cup title to his list of outstanding achievements for 2011; most notably becoming the first Australian to win the snowboard cross world championship.

Pullin needed 604 points to take overall lead going into the last four finals of the World Cup series. He produced a superb performance and a total score of 1000 points to clinch the Crystal Globe trophy, beating Italy’s Luca Matteotti (800 points) and the United States’s Nick Baumgartner (600 points).

‘The world championships were my main goal,’ said. Pullin. ‘After I won it, I realised that I could win the Crystal Globe so I switched directions. It’s tough to change goals in a running season.’

Pullin finished the World Cup series with an overall score of 3270 points, ahead of France’s Pierre Vaultier (3210) and the United States’s Jonathon Cheever (2690).