Former Australian alpine national champion Sarah Sauvey has followed the lead of Salt Lake 2002 skier Jenny Owens in switching to ski cross, finishing 12th in the World Championships on March 6.

Competing in Madonna di Campiglio, Sauvey qualified for the round of 16 in 12th place, posting a time of 57.29 seconds, 2.35 seconds behind fastest qualifier Ophelie David of France.

She then came up against David, the four time World Cup champion, in the first of the head to head final rounds, finishing in third place behind the Frenchwoman and Japanese skier Noriko Fukushima, and ending in 12th overall.

Sauvey, 23, was the Australian slalom champion in 2003 and national junior champion in both slalom and GS in the same year.

In the following few years she struggled to overcome a mysterious and painful abdominal injury which was finally diagnosed as an occluded coeliac artery caused by the tightening of the arcuate core ligament across her diaphragm.