Australia’s Alex “Chumpy” Pullin underlined his name on a short list of serious contenders for World Championship glory last night with an impressive display in snowboard cross qualifying.

Competing in the snowboard cross World Championships in La Molina, Spain, the affable Australian thundered down the challenging 650-metre course to record the fourth fastest time going into tonight’s World Championship final.

But while Pullin’s time was fractionally slower than  Austria’s defending world champion Markus Schairer, Frenchman Pierre Vaultier and Italian Luca Matteotti, he knows that not only is he well within striking distance of the top title contenders, he could have been the day’s pacesetter.

After setting a blistering time of 54.55 seconds in his first run, the 23-year-old AIS scholarship holder from Mansfield, Victoria, headed the 64-man qualifying table.

However, pushing too hard going into bank two of the 20-feature course saw the Australian fall in his second attack of the mountain, which cruelled his final attempt to secure the quickest time of the day.

The track appeared to become faster after the first run, indicating that Pullin had a golden opportunity to ride much faster and perhaps top the best times of Schairer’s 53.83 seconds, Vaultier’s 54.41 and Matteotti’s 54.47. Each of these times was achieved in second attempts under brilliant sunshine and in spring-like temperature.

AIS snowboard cross coach Ben Wordsworth was full of praise for Pullin’s qualifying feat.

“He has set himself up for a great race in the final and if all goes well he may be on the podium,” an elated Wordsworth said after qualifying.

“He has trained well all week and he goes into the final fit and healthy with good mind preparation.

”We are really looking forward to the race.”

But Wordsworth and his young charge are not getting ahead of themselves, knowing too well that snowboard cross is a sport with more than its share of unpredictable incidents and of course the World Championships has a field of elite boarders all with their eyes firmly fixed on the title.

Pullin comes up against Frenchman Tony Ramon, Austrian Hanno Douschan and Swiss rider Hans Reichen in his first knock out encounter tonight Australian eastern time.