Sterner

The Swedish men stormed the eighth halfpipe contest of the NOKIA Snowboard FIS World Cup today in Makomanai, Japan, under sunny skies and with more than 1,000 fans lining the pipe all day. In the women's division, Japanese rider Yoko Miyake celebrated her first World Cup race.

Two of the Swedes dueled for 1st and 2nd place. Fredrik Sterner had finished fourth in the qualification and led Thomas Johansson after the first run, with 42.8 points. In the second run, Johansson managed to make up 0.3 points while Sterner crashed. But Sterner kept the lead, winning his second event this season.

"I am happy that I made it," Sterner said, "the first run had good height and nice tricks but I wasn't happy with all my spins and I always like to do two good ones, but I just did not work that out today. I really liked the pipe, it was probably one of the best so far, David has done a really good job."

"I did only two World Cup contests last year, but I've been doing quite a few this season and never made it any further than 12th. I am so happy that I did it here...."— Yoko Miyake (JAP)

Sterner was not the only rider to give props to pipe shaper David Ny and the work of the FIS organizing committee today, although many riders had complained about the shape earlier this week.

"The pipe was super good today and I definitely wanted to make it to first place," said Johansson, "I don't know why I did not. I could not see any mistakes really, maybe Fredrik just had a better run, I did not watch it."

NOKIA World team rider Pasi Voho from Finland made it to 3rd place and prevented a full Swedish sweep of the podium, bumping Sterner's cousin Markus down to 4th place.

"I only feel confident when I make some good competitions," Voho said, remembering his bad start into the season and pointing out that today's result was his third podium in a row. "I do not think about results once I am riding, but just try my best. I also wanted to make it a good one for all those people watching."

With today's result, Fredrik Sterner crept closer to standings leader Johansson. Voho moved up from 7th to 3rd place in the overall ranking.

	Miyake

The Japanese crowd went mad when Yoko Miyake took the gold in front of her home crowd. The 27-year-old from Nara had not been considered a contender for the win, since she only started travelling with the tour this season and will conclude it next weekend in Nagano.

"I did only two World Cup contests last year," she said, "but I've been doing quite a few this season and never made it any further than 12th. I am so happy that I did it here. Riding here was so much fun with the nice weather, the good pipe and the people around. Maybe that helped, also."

NOKIA World team rider Sabine Wehr-Hasler from Germany finished 2nd.

"My back flip towards the end works pretty good now, but I still have to work on the middle parts of my runs. You need to take the full risk and show something special if you want to make it to the podium," said Wehr-Hasler, who also mentioned that the Japanese women, five of whom made it to the top-10, made a great showing today.

Anna Hellman from Sweden took 3rd, but is in front of Wehr-Hasler in the standings. They are both ahead of US rider Tricia Byrnes, who is competing at the Goodwill Games this week.

The Makomanai World Cup stage will conclude tomorrow with the season's sixth snowboard cross.

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent