Australian Ben Tudhope’s dominant para-snowboard cross season has ended in the best possible way, with the three-time Paralympian now a world champion.

Having won silver in the snowboard cross at the previous two world championships, Tudhope cracked top spot on the podium in La Molina, Spain. 

And Paralympic swimmer and cyclist Amanda Reid also made a stunning transition to winter sports, winning her own snowboard cross world crown.

Tudhope had already wrapped up the crystal globe as overall World Cup champion, with five wins and a third-place finish from six snowboard cross races this season.

He was excited to have finally added the title of world champion to his haul, beating home Italy’s Emanuel Perathoner and American Zach Miller.

“I cannot believe this — this is absolutely insane,” said Tudhope, who won a bronze medal in the snowboard cross SB-LL2 classification at last year’s Beijing Paralympic Winter Games.

“I was sitting in second behind Perathoner and then he had a little bobble and went down, but to be honest, these conditions here are exactly like home.”

Tudhope went on to dedicate the win to a former teammate and coach, inspired by a vision over the mountain before his final.

“Nine years go my teammate died here, Matty Robinson,” Tudhope said.

“I saw two birds flying over today: one’s for him and one’s for my late coach Mikko Wendelin. He passed away in 2019 and I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Reid took advantage of the front-runners going down in the late stages of the race to take the gold ahead of Brenna Huckaby Clegg (United States) and Cecile Hernandez (France).

A seven-time world champion in the track cycling, the Tokyo Paralympic gold medallist went to La Molina for the experience and was surprised by the result.

“I came in just to have fun and enjoy my first world championships” Reid said.

“I didn’t expect to walk away with that result at all, so I’m pretty excited.”

AAP