Fingerlos

The NOKIA Snowboard FIS World Cup kicked off its final third today in Makomanai, Japan, 40 minutes by car from Sapporo, on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The weather has been crazy over the past couple of days, with sunny blue skies quickly turning grey and then dumping heavy snow. Skies were clear though for the start of today's parallel giant slalom, but clouds came up again toward the end of the finals.

With steep start and finish sections connected by a very flat mid-section, the course was not scoring high marks with competitors.

"Maybe the race is going to be decided at dinner tonight," French rider Nicolas Huet joked during the pre-race training. "The heavy ones should have a clear advantage on this slope, and the smallest mistakes will make you lose everything."

"I have been riding quite well this season and always qualified for the finals with a pretty good time, but I never made it happen in the finals. I am happy I worked it out today...."— Richard Richardsson (SWE)

Some of the top riders proved this to be exactly the case, including NOKIA World Team rider Matthieu Bozzetto, who surprisingly dropped out in the quarter-finals after having dominated most of the season's parallel events. The Frenchman was beaten by Richard Richardsson from Sweden, who then made his way up to the final duel against Italy's Elmar Messner.

After Messner won the first run by 54/100 of a second, it seemed pretty clear that he'd get his first win in more than a year, but he made a mistake in the second run and Richardsson claimed the gold.

"This should have happened much earlier," Richardsson said. "I have been riding quite well this season and always qualified for the finals with a pretty good time, but I never made it happen in the finals. I am happy I worked it out today."

Messner, however, seemed a bit disappointed in taking 2nd.

"After more than one year, it would have been time for a win," he said, "and I felt I could make it happen today, but when I made this mistake I could not catch up with Richard again. Second place is a good result and I can still try it again in the two races that are left."

	Richardsson

Canadian Jasey Jay Anderson won the duel for 3rd place against Sweden's Stephen Copp. With his 5th place today, Bozzetto is already a shoe-in for the Parallel World Cup title, since neither his teammate Nicolas Huet, who is in 2nd so far and did not qualify for today's finals, nor Austria's Felix Stadler, who ended up 15th here today, can close the gap in the remaining events.

Three Austrian women made it to the final two heats, but Carmen Ranigler from Italy edged out two of them, to take the silver. She faced Ursula Fingerlos in the duel for 1st and 2nd place, but ceded to the Austrian, who won both runs with a total of 52/100.

"I think it is because I had fun riding again," Fingerlos said, "I did not like the course a lot, since I prefer the steeper ones and the flat part here was something most did not like. I am glad that I worked it out."

Ranigler ended up 2nd, ahead of Claudia Riegler and Nina Schlegel. Isabelle Blanc from France did not advance and took 16th today, though she still keeps the lead in the standings. Austria's Manuela Riegler stays 2nd, ahead of Karine Ruby from France.

The halfpipe is scheduled for tomorrow, and the Makomanai stage concludes Sunday with a snowboard cross.

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent