With just four more stops to be held prior to the World Cup finals in mid-March, the 2000/2001 Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup is at its decisive stage. This coming weekend, Berchtesgaden will host two halfpipe contests, one parallel slalom and a parallel giant slalom. While two parallel slalom races were held last week, the halfpipe and parallel giant slalom riders will get their first opportunities to take revenge after the Snowboard World Championships two weeks ago. The Berchtesgaden event will kick off with the halfpipe under the floodlights Thursday night. The Scandinavian riders are currently sitting in the top of the World Cup standings with Magnus Sterner from Sweden in the lead ahead of his teammate Stefan Karlsson, then Norwegians Daniel Franck and Espen Arvesen, with Canada's Brett Carpentier in 4th place. Stine Brun Kjeldaas from Norway is leading the women's standings with three victories in four contests so far but Japan's Michiyo Hashimoto, who is in 2nd place right now, intends to close the gap this weekend. Other contenders are Anna Olofsson from Sweden, who claimed the silver medal at the Junior World Championships in Berchtesgaden last year, her teammate Janet Jonsson and last year's Halfpipe World Cup Champion Sabine Wehr-Hasler from Germany. Those who miss it on Thursday will have another opportunity to compete for valuable World Cup points in the second halfpipe contest held on Saturday. Exciting head-to-head duels in parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom can be expected on Friday and Sunday. Nicolas Huet from France is one of the top favorites for both events. Not only is he leading the parallel standings at this time, but he also won the gold in parallel slalom at the 1999 World Championships in Berchtesgaden and was the only rider to defend his championship title this year. However, Slovenia's Dejan Kosir and Mathieu Bozzetto from France, as well as Sweden's Richard Richardsson, and Markus Ebner from Germany, need to be considered. Another rider will appear on the Berchtesgaden slopes again after taking a year off while working for Canadian television — Olympic Giant Slalom Gold Medalist Ross Rebagliati from Canada who usually doesn't compete in parallel races but wants to check his skills before the 2002 Olympics in which giant slalom will be replaced by parallel GS. France's Karine Ruby, currently leading the standings, Carmen "Kamikaze" Ranigler from Italy and US rider Rosey Fletcher are the number one contenders for the podium in the women's division, but Isabelle Blanc from France who is in 4th place overall will for sure be trying to close the gap. Berchtesgaden will mark the last stop on the European leg before the World Cup heads on to Japan for two races and to Park City for the Olympic dress rehearsal on the slope of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, before it returns to Europe for the finals held in Ruka, Finland. — Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent