THE CANADIAN PRESS
KVITFJELL, Norway -- Another day, another World Cup downhill ski medal for Canada's Manuel Osborne-Paradis.
The native of Invermere, B.C., captured a bronze medal Saturday in a World Cup men's downhill. He won Friday's downhill, his first career World Cup victory.
"It's a really nice feeling to be able to do it two days in a row," Osborne-Paradis said during a conference call. "When I came down and I was in second I was really hoping that the second place would stick just because I have a whole whack of these third places now.
"But the third place I'm really happy with."
It was also another great day for the Canadian team.
Robbie Dixon of Whistler, B.C., was seventh, just ahead of Calgary's John Kucera in eighth and Erik Guay, of Mont-Tremblant, Que., in ninth. On Friday, Dixon, Kucera and Guay earned top-10 finishes.
"I'm super happy that all the other Canadian boys were in the top-10," Osborne-Paradis said. "We're all finishing as a group and moving ahead as a group and it's nice to share it with all those guys."
Klaus Kroell led an Austrian 1-2 finish in Saturday's event en route to claiming his first World Cup downhill race.
Kroell completed the Olympic course, which was shortened because of fog, in one minute 32.12 seconds. It was the first time an Austrian won a downhill at Kvitfjell since Hermann Maier in 2005.
Osborne-Paradis said the conditions created no shortage of challenges.
"It was a lower start because there was fog at the top so it made it more of a sprint," he said. "It made it where the little mistakes really did matter because you didn't have time to make up time or speed at any section."
He also said course officials had to water down sections of the circuit that combined with new snow created ice bumps.
"You couldn't really see them because of the new snow on the ground, the fog and the fact that the blue hashmarks put down the course were getting covered by the snow," he said. "It was a lot of feeling today under the ski.
"It was a different day. It was definitely a different course, different everything. It was definitely harder day to ski and ski well. I made some major crucial mistakes at the top and the bottom but all in all I think I'm happy with the result."
Michael Walchhofer finished 0.27 seconds behind to finish as the runner-up for the second straight day. Osborne-Paradis, from Invermere, B.C., was 0.46 behind in third.
Osborne-Paradis registered his third podium finish of the season, following a third-place effort in Val Gardena, Italy, in December. It's also the sixth podium of his career.
Head coach Paul Kristofic was ecstatic with the performance of the Canadian team, again re-iterating it could bode well for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. That's because this course is very similar to the one athletes will compete on in Whistler, B.C.
"This was sort of a confirmation of (Friday) that it wasn't a fluke and the guys are all firing on all cylinders and having good performances on a hill that does resemble Whistler quite a bit," he said. "I would say it shows the strength of the group and the focus to be fast every day."
American Bode Miller, who won a downhill here last year, won't ski again this season but has yet to decide on retirement. The defending World Cup overall champion hasn't won a race this season and sat out the last two weekends in Europe.
Walchhofer leads the downhill standings with 470 points. Kroell moved to second with 395 with one more race left in the season.
The last downhill of the season will be held next week during the World Cup final at Are, Sweden. A super G is scheduled here Sunday.
