Australian Institute of Sport/NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holder, Scott Kneller, has taken another important step towards finishing the ski cross World Cup season in the top 10 rankings for the first time in his career.

Competing last night in the eighth round of the World Cup series in Grindelwald, Switzerland, the 21-year-old from NSW’s Jindabyne advanced to the quarter finals, after qualifying in 32nd place and finishing second in his first knock out round of the finals.

Unfortunately Kneller’s fourth place in his quarter final was not enough to see him advance to the semi-final, which resulted in a 16th place overall.

However, the quarter finals appearance enabled Kneller to improve his ranking from 13th place to 12th, just 13 points behind a spot in the world’s top 10.

With just three rounds remaining before the end of the season, Kneller is focused on recapturing the form which gave him his first World Cup victory in Italy in December.

Austria’s Olympic silver medalist, Matt Andreas, tightened his grip on the World Cup with a win in Grindelwald, ahead of World Championship runner-up, Jouni Pellinen, from Finland, while Canada’s Christopher Delbosco finished third.

Kneller’s teammate, Katya Crema, is in a points struggle of her own by attempting to consolidate her place in the world’s top 20.

Twenty-two-year-old Crema also made the quarter finals and jumped four places in World Cup standings.

Crema goes into Sunday’s next round in Meiringen-Hasliberg, Switzerland, ranked 19th, 14 places higher than where she finished in last year’s World Cup.

Crema enjoyed one of her best World Cup rounds for the year by qualifying in 13th place and finishing in the same position after a third place in her quarter finals, where only the first two places advanced to the semi-finals.

The women’s event was won by Norway’s Marte Hoeie Gjefsen, France’s Ophelie David was second and Germany’s Heidi Zacher was third, enabling her to retain the leadership in the World Cup standings.

Teammates Jenny Owens and Anton Grimus did not compete, while Sami Kennedy did not finish.