THE CANADIAN PRESS
KVITFJELL, Norway — Another near miss for Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis.
The skier from North Vancouver, B.C., was fifth in a men’s downhill race with a time of one minute 46.97 seconds. For the second straight day, he narrowly missed finishing on the podium as Italian Werner Heel was third in 1:46.91.
On Friday, Osborne-Paradis was fourth in a downhill event here.
American Bode Miller skied a near-flawless run to win the race by 0.40 seconds over Didier Cuche of Switzerland.
Miller went down the Olympic course in 1:46.16 to capture his third downhill victory of the season.
"It was good, I really pushed it hard," said Miller.
Cuche, the defending World Cup downhill champion, was a distant runner-up.
"Yesterday, after only one training run, I really didn’t feel I could go 100 per cent," Miller said. "Today, I knew what it was going to feel like.
"I knew the bumps. I cleaned up a few of the spots where I had trouble yesterday."
Miller increased his lead in the overall standings over Cuche to 165 points. Miller has 1,283 with seven races left. Five of them will be held March 12-16 at the World Cup finals in Bormio, Italy.
Benjamin Raich stayed at 1,058 points and dropped to third. The Austrian skied out and finished out of the points for the second straight day. Each win is worth 100 points.
Miller does not want to think about the overall yet.
"We have to wait and see. There are seven races left — that’s a lot of points. You can never count Benny out in the overall," said Miller. "When I get on the course, the last thing I’m thinking about is the overall.
"I just push it. If I push it too hard, I can easily make mistakes and go out. If you go out … no points."
In the downhill standings, only five points separate Cuche and Miller.
"The downhill title race is exactly how I’d love to have it," Miller said. "It comes down to the last race and Didier has been so strong all year, and he showed today that with no mistakes, he’s right there.
"Bormio is going to be a challenge."