Australian snowboarding athletes won three gold medals in the men's and women;s halfpipe events at the FIS Snowboard World Championships in La Molina, Spain, which ran from 14 to 23 January. Australian Institute of Sport (AIS)/Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) athletes Nathan Johnstone and Holly Crawford have each claimed a gold medal in the men's and women's halfpipe events respectively.

It caps off a magnificent performance by AIS/OWIA athletes in collecting triple gold for Australia, after Alex Pullin's triumph in the men's snowboard cross event on 18 January. In doing so, Pullin became the first Australian to win a world championship title in snowboarding.

Two days later Crawford took the overall lead with a strong first run. The 26-year-old claimed gold in her second run with a final score of 26.7 points. She beat Switzerland's Ursina Haller (25.8 points) and China's Jiayu Liu (22.5 points).

'I am overjoyed and extremely happy,' Crawford said.

'The important thing today was staying calm. 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 after performing some spectacular tricks with big air time in his opening run. The 20-year-old won gold with a final score of 26.8 points, just 0.6 seconds ahead of Switzerland's Louri Podladthcikov. Finland's Markus Malin finished in third place on 24.3 points.

It has been a remarkable comeback for Johnstone after recovering from an ankle injury, which forced him to miss out on the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in 2010.

Both AIS/OWIA 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/OWIA athletes' success is 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.'