The halfpipe riders faced nice conditions and a cheering crowd of almost 4,000 spectators in Berchtesgaden, Germany, today at the season's fourth halfpipe event. US riders Rob Kingwill and Tricia Byrnes, who were leading the World Cup standings before today's race, did not register for Berchtesgaden and left the door open for others to close the gap.

	Sabine Wehr-Hasler

Despite their absence, the spectators crowded on the lip of the pipe and pushed the riders all day. They were given a good show with spectacular performances from the riders who obviously loved the pipe.

Japan's Kentaro Miyawaki was not considered a contender for the podium today, since he has never placed higher than the top-30. But he surprised everyone with his consistently good runs throughout the day. His was the best score out of the ten finalists in the semi final run, and scored even higher in the final (42.4).

"This is a complete surprise," he said, "I had the feeling that I was doing good all day but did not expect this to happen at all. The pipe did fit me a lot and it was so much fun riding here. I still can't believe that I won. Hopefully I can keep on like this from now on," said Miyawaki.

"This is a complete surprise. I had the feeling that I was doing good all day but did not expect this to happen at all. The pipe did fit me a lot and it was so much fun riding here...."— Kentaro Miyawaki, JAP

US rider Ricky Bower, who won the World Championship title on this slope last season, failed in the first final run and just didn't have the enough juice to beat Miyawaki in the final, settling for 2nd. Markus Sterner from Sweden took the bronze.

Sterner's teammate Thomas Johansson also took to the podium as the World Cup standings leader after finishing 9th today. This ousted Rob Kingwill from the top of the standings. He is now 2nd, ahead of NOKIA team riders Aleksi Litovaara from Finland who finished fifth at Berchtesgaden.

Overall, it was a good event for the men's US Snowboard Team. Ricky Bower, Seth Wescott, and Zach Horwitz all placed in the top-10.

First Win for Germany's Sabine Wehr-Hasler
In absence of US rider Kim Stacey, who won the gold medal at the World Championships in Berchtesgaden last year, Sabine Wehr-Hasler from Germany was calculated among the top women favorites for today's win. She had been sixth at the World Championships and she definitely wanted it today. She led the field after the first run, and seemed relaxed going into the final, where she scored 33.5. This is her first-ever win on the World Cup Tour.

	Miyawaki

"It's like a dream came true," said Wehr-Hasler, with teary eyes, "you do not expect to make it to the very top at the age of 32. After the World Championships I was even thinking about stoping competing but I'm glad I went on. There, I did not do back flips, which I added to my program now and it's been working fine all season. I did a lot of windsurfing together with Patrick (Hasler, her husband) and this obviously helped a lot. Also, it was so much fun racing today with all those people cheering at you. You could hear them all the way down."

The two Swedish Annas, Olofsson and Hellman, took 2nd and 3rd and Wehr-Hasler is now leading the standings ahead of both of them.

The Berchtesgaden event will conclude tomorrow with the second parallel slalom of the season.

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent