It was a perfect conclusion of the year and it could probably not have been any better when the halfpipe riders were the last to compete for medals at the NOKIA Snowboard FIS World Cup in Mont Sainte Anne, Canada, today.

	Yuri Yoshikawa

Due to the lack of snow over the past few weeks, the pipe wasn't as big as it had been last season. But new snow from Thursday and perfect preparation over the last two days put it in really good shape. Pure sunshine all day long and a beautiful view on St. Lawrence, just starting to ice over, added ambiance and made it a good day for a contest.

Getting to the bottom of the pipe, everybody had to pass a tiny little white tent next to the judges stand, where DJTL (DJ TRAVES LYNNE) was busy all day getting the right stuff on to the PA system, helping the riders fly through the pipe. Nothing unusual? Travis is an 11-year-old boy who was in deep concentration from the beginning of the contest to the end, spinning the collection of titles he'd spent two months putting together. Traves, alias Alex, got the right stuff on and everyone liked it.

"The men's event was pure Scandinavian domain with Thomas Johansson from Sweden in 1st place and Finland's Jari Vastamäki and Aleksi Litovaara ranked 2nd and 3rd..."

As for the competition, the Swedes made it their contest today, with Thomas Johansson and Anna Hellman taking the gold. She was already in the lead after the first run and was able to try something more difficult in the second. "It was good, I knew that I was leading after the first run," she said. "This really helps you doing better. I was planning to do a McTwist in the end, but then I fell before and just didn't have enough space left to do it."

This is the second win of her career. "It's really nice to be up here again," Hellman said. Yuri Yoshikawa from Japan is also moving up, finishing second today, ahead of US riders Kim Stacey and Tricia Byrnes. "The pipe was a bit hard when we came here," Stacey said, "but we had so much training, so I got really used to the pipe. The shape was excellent." Byrnes still keeps the world cup lead with a total of 1740 points, just 10 ahead of Hellman now and Stacey, currently in 3rd (1700).

The men's event was pure Scandinavian domain with Thomas Johansson from Sweden in 1st place and Finland's Jari Vastamäki and Aleksi Litovaara ranked 2nd and 3rd. Johansson had never before made it to the podium. "That was a great day," he said, "nice weather and a good pipe. I did not expect to get it done like this today, but I was just trying to go clean all the way down and it worked."

	DJ Traves

Johansson also had to withstand a champagne shower during the late afternoon awards ceremony, but seemed to like it. "That's another good part of a win", he said.

US rider Rob Kingwill didn't come to Mont Sainte Anne, but remains in the lead in the World Cup standings (1600 points) ahead of Johansson and Marcus Jonsson (SWE/1360).

That was the conclusion of the millennium's last stage of the NOKIA Snowboard FIS World Cup. The riders will get back together again in France (Les Gets/Morzine) January 8-9, 2000, featuring parallel slalom and Snowboard Cross.

And Traves Lynne...finally got huge applause from the crowd hanging around the pipe during the finals and he obviously enjoyed it. Keep on, DJTL

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent