Alex Pullin has continued his impressive start to the season with a career-best eighth placing in the second of two World Cups in Valle Nevado, Chile.

The result puts the Mt Buller 20-year-old into 11th place on the World Cup snowboard cross rankings, in just his second year on the circuit.

Pullin qualified in 22nd place, then rode strongly through the opening round of the final, placing second behind dual world champion Xavier Delerue in the round of 32, then second again behind the  Frenchman in the round of 16.

"Alex was a serious contender all day, going through the first final rounds with some very fast starting and one of the smoothest lines through the top section of the course," said Ben Wordsworth, Head Coach OWI Snowboard Program.

"A missed start in the semi-finals put him into third position and he had to chase the pack down the course, missing a place in the final.

"In the small final he put on a showing but ended in fourth position for the overall placing of eighth."

"To finish top eight against the world's best is a huge experience for Alex and something he can take a lot of knowledge from."

The men's gold medal went to Pierre Vaultier of France from Stian Sivertzen of Norway, with Delerue collecting the bronze.

Sivertzen leads the World Cup standings on 1800 points from Vaultier, on 1500. Pullin has 350 points after the season's opening two rounds.

The women's gold was won by Maelle Ricker of Canada from Mellie Francon of Switzerland and another Canadian, Dominique Maltais.

The OWI team will now have 10 days off at home in Australia to recover in preparation  for a scheduled dryland training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in mid-October.