Canada's Osborne-Paradis wins men's downhill

KVITFJELL, Norway (AP) -- Manuel Osborne-Paradis of Canada notched his first victory in a World Cup downhill on Friday, edging Michael Walchhofer of Austria by 0.31 seconds.

Osborne-Paradis covered the 3,035 meters Olympiabakken course in one minute 47.09 seconds. His previous best downhill result was a second-placed finish at Lake Louise, Canada in 2007.

Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, the 2007 overall champion, was 0.37 seconds behind Osborne-Paradis in third place.

Though Osborne-Paradis crashed when he skied Kvitfjell's Olympic course for first time in 2005, he said after Friday's triumph: "I've always like this course a lot.

"It has every aspect a downhill should have. It's got flats, steeps, really big hard turns, quick turns, big jumps. It really does have everything."

Last year he just missed the podium at Kvitfjell, finishing fourth and fifth on the course that former Swiss downhill great Bernhard Russi designed for the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics.

"It feels great to finally be able to step on the top of the podium," Osborne-Paradis said. "I didn't have the best top splits. It seems the middle was where I excelled the most.

"I love doing downhill. I love the whole aspect of downhill, from figuring out the course in training runs to competing."

No other Canadian has won a downhill or a super-G at Kvitfjell. The only Canadians who made the podium were Ed Podivinsky (downhill) in 1997 and Erik Guay (downhill) in 2007.

The race was delayed for several minutes after Patrik Jaerbyn - who started 23rd out of 63 racers ? crashed on the lower part of the course at an estimated speed of 90 kph. The Swede, at 39 the oldest skier on the World Cup circuit, escaped unhurt.

Walchhofer closed in on the downhill title by finishing runner-up. Two downhills remain in the season, one in Kvitfjell on Saturday and one next week during the World Cup Finals at Are, Sweden.

"It was a great race for me," Walchhofer said. "I'm very happy with my second place. It was very important to get 80 points."

Bode Miller, the defending overall champion, won't ski again this season and sat out the last two weekends in Europe.

The American, who had a second and a first place in two downhills at Kvitfjell last year, was virtually out of the running to repeat as overall champion.