It looked like the day would never end at Tandadalen where the halfpipe riders held their seventh contest of the 1999/2000 NOKIA Snowboard FIS World Cup today. Heavy snowfall all night, which continued almost until the end of today's competition, caused tremendous delays and — not intended by anybody at all — forced another floodlit event. Despite the unfavorable conditions, there have been no complaints and the event turned out to be a good one thanks to the continuous efforts of the Tandadalen organizers, who were constantly working on the pipe. A hard job for organizers since almost half a meter of snow had to be removed.

	Tricia Byrnes

US rider Tommy Czeschin, having already won a halfpipe World Cup in Tandadalen last season, managed to take the lead after the first final run, which was carried out in continuous snowfall and intermittent, strong storm gusts. Then, as if someone had pushed a button, the snowfall ceased and the riders faced completely different conditions for the second run. Czeschin tried to take advantage of this but failed to improve his score.

However, he did finally get his second-ever win under his belt.

"It was really time for a win," he said. "I am stoked. The first run was pretty windy and the snowfall never stopped, but then it cleared up and everyone felt relieved. I tried a frontside 900 in the second but fell. All in all, my first run has been much better but I got there, that is fine."

"It was really challenging, we had to wait for so long until it finally started, all the snow, the weather changes, this was not an easy day...." — Tricia Byrnes, winner

The Finns took second and third place with Tuomo Ojala making it to the podium for the first-time ever. NOKIA World Team member Pasi Voho claimed the bronze after having finished second last night. "Finnish riders are used to these conditions," Ojala said, explaining their success, "our competitions usually go that way. We know that we just need to accept or even ignore the weather and try the best we can."

Voho was upset in a qualification run but then still made it to the finals. He could not really ignore the conditions: "Whenever I wanted to make some speed the wind increased," Finn said. "so I tried as hard as I could. I was glad when the wind slowed down for the second run and felt much better then."

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Tommy Johansson from Sweden still keeps the yellow bib as the halfpipe World Cup leader, despite finishing fifth today. Sweden's Fredrik Sterner took ninth place and stays second in the standings ahead of US rider Zach Horwitz, who placed seventh today.

US rider Tricia Byrnes took the gold in the women's event, after winning last night's contest. With the 10th World Cup win of her career, she completed the US double.

"It was really challenging," she said, "we had to wait for so long until it finally started, all the snow, the weather changes, this was not an easy day. However, there was a lot of good riding and I always enjoy racing here."

Anna Hellman, from Sälen, Sweden, came in second ahead of Germany's Sabine Wehr-Hasler. With today's result, Hellman, once again, claimed the yellow leader bib from Wehr-Hasler who is in second position now, with Byrnes moving up to third place in the standings.

The World Cup heads on to Ischgl, Austria, now for the next World Cup stage, featuring parallel slalom, giant slalom and snowboard cross.

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent