Kvitfjell: Canada rocks World Cup boat

With the strains of “Oh, Canada,” waiting to be played at the Vancouver Olympics next winter, the Canadian men’s downhill team came to Kvitfjell, Norway for a set of World Cup speed races and kicked off with a potent showing.

Manuel Osborne-Paradis collected his first career win. Robbie Dixon got fifth, the second best result of his career. World downhill champion John Kucera took seventh and Erik Guay nestled into tenth.

The last two times Canada put four in the top 10 in a downhill were 20 years ago in North America. Most recently in 1988 at Beaver Creek. Before that, in 1982, Steve Podborski, Dave Irwin, Todd Brooker and Ken Read went 2-3-5-7 at Whistler, where the Olympic test will be held.With the strains of “Oh, Canada,” waiting to be played at the Vancouver Olympics next winter, the Canadian men’s downhill team came to Kvitfjell, Norway for a set of World Cup speed races and kicked off with a potent showing.

Manuel Osborne-Paradis collected his first career win. Robbie Dixon got fifth, the second best result of his career. World downhill champion John Kucera took seventh and Erik Guay nestled into tenth.

The last two times Canada put four in the top 10 in a downhill were 20 years ago in North America. Most recently in 1988 at Beaver Creek. Before that, in 1982, Steve Podborski, Dave Irwin, Todd Brooker and Ken Read went 2-3-5-7 at Whistler, where the Olympic test will be held.

Downhill standings leader Michael Walchhofer finished second with the homestanding Aksel Lund Svindal close behind for third. Slovene Andrej Jerman was fourth.

No question, though, the success of  the Canadian team here was a matter of feeding off each other. The team was coming off a training camp at Whistler and was definitely looking forward to Kvitfjell.

“It’s a downhiller’s downhill,” said Osborne-Paradis. “It’s got all the aspects so you can capitalize on the sections that match your strengths.”

Still, standing at the top, he said, he was prepared but not as amped up as he needed to be. “I watched Robbie (Dixon) run on TV at the start,” Osborne-Paradis said, “and I knew it was one of the best of the day. So I h

ad to figure out in my head how I was going to ski better than him, and that was what brought me to the mental state I needed to be in." He said one stretch in the middle of the course where he was able to stay subtle on the skis may have won it for him. "I've made runs where I've had less mistakes, but I wasn't going that hard. "I won two splits, but other than that I wasn't that good down the course. I have to push harder tomorrow and be better as well." In terms of the season the result further muddied the water. Benjamin Raich finished 29th, giving him the two points he needed to tie Ivica Kostelic for the lead of the overall World Cup standings and Svindal snuck past tech skier Jean-Baptiste Grange into third place. With six races left and four of them speed races (two downhills and two super G's) the technical guys appear to be at a disadvantage. Osborne-Paradis kept thin hopes for the DH title alive with the win, but Walchhofer upped his lead in the downhill standings to 77pts over Didier Defago, the 16th finisher today. Klaus Kroell sits third and Bode Miller, who elected to end his season and not compete at Kvitfjell or at finals in Are, Sweden, is fourth. There was no doubt, however, the 25 year old Vancouver resident was pleased with his win, taking the opportunity to take a swipe at the lack of spectators at the Norwegian site. "I really wanted to make the podium this season," Osborne-Paradis told reporters. "Now I can celebrate with Aksel's family and a few folks from the region." He said the Canadians often train with Svindal. "We call it the Nor-Can team, so  really, we had five in the top 10." It was a pretty dismal day for the Americans, though Marco Sullivan did post 14th. "This was a wake up call and it will bring focus and attention to the rest of the weekend, " said U.S. coach Sasha Rearick. "The guys haven't raced in a while because of their break after World Championships," Rearick said. "Yesterday was our first training run in a while and they skied it with not 100 percent intensity. They came out and gave the effort today, but they made some mistakes in parts of the course. We can ski better than we did today. We did not get the job done. The guys have a lot of energy, they're rested, they are fresh but they're not quite firing on all cylinders in terms of competing well."

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The SCOOP Equipment
Men's Downhill, Kvitfjell, Norway, March 6, 2009
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Osborne-Paradis, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
2 Walchhofer, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Jerman, Stoeckli/Lange/Atomic
5 Dixon, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
6 Heel, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
7 Kucera, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8 Fill, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Theaux, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
10 Guay, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

Men's Downhill, Kvitfjell, Norway, March 6, 2009. … It is the 31st race of the men's 37 race World Cup schedule. … The seventh of nine scheduled downhills. … This is a make-up race from Garmisch when fog forced postponement of the Jan. 31 race. … It is the 35th World Cup race held at Kvitfjell. … The 17th downhill. It is the first career World Cup win for Manuel Osborne-Paradis. … He has four Cup podiums but only one this season, a third at Val Gardena Dec. 20. … It is the 64th Canadian win and the first since Emily Brydon won a super G at St Moritz Feb. 3, 2008. … It is the first Cup win for a Canadian male since Jan Hudec won the Lake Louise DH Nov. 24, 2007. It is the 39th career World Cup podium for Michael Walchhofer. … His 30th in DH. … It is his fifth podium of the season, and fourth in DH. It is the 21st career World Cup podium for Aksel Svindal. … His fourth in DH. … It is his first downhill podium that is not a win. … It is his fifth Cup podium of the season and second in downhill having won at Beaver Creek. … He also has three super G podiums this season. It is the best career World Cup DH result for Robbie Dixon. … He also has a fourth in SG to his credit, scored at Kvitfjell a year and four days ago. … His fifth place finish is eight placings better than his next best result this season, a 13th at Val Gardena's DH Dec. 20. … It is the 13th time John Kucera has been seventh or better in a World Cup race. … It is his fourth best World Cup result of the season after a 2nd in super G at Lake Louise and a duo of sixth place finishes. … He also won the World DH championship at Val d'Isere Feb. 7. … It is the 36th career World Cup top 10 for Erik Guay. … His 21st in DH. … It is his seventh top 10 of the season. … His best a third in DH at Beaver Creek Dec. 5. … It is the 23rd career top 15 placing for Marco Sullivan. … His sixth of the season. … It is his best result at Kvitfjell the only other a 17th in SG last season. … It is the fourth best of four results at Kvitfjell for Steven Nyman. … and his fourth scoring result of the season, the first since December. Benjamin Raich (29th in race) moves into a tie with Ivica Kostelic (did not race) for the lead of the World Cup overall standings with identical 837pt scores, with six races remaining. … Aksel Lund Svindal moved past Jean-Baptiste Grange (did not race) into third in the standings at 811pts. Grange is fourth at 777. Didier Cuche (15th in race) closes to 743 in fifth. With two races remaining Michael Walchhofer now holds a 77pt lead over Didier Defago (16th in race) for the downhill standings lead, 390-313. … Klaus Kroell (13th in race) is third at 295 and Bode Miller (did not attend) is fourth at 275. … Osborne-Paradis moves into fifth place at 239 and Svindal is one point back and both ar still in the competition for the title.

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	13	102899	OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel	1984	CAN	1:47.09	0.00
2	16	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:47.40	3.82
3	17	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:47.46	4.56
4	9	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO	1:47.57	5.92
5	3	102961	DIXON Robbie	1985	CAN	1:47.60	6.29
6	12	292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA	1:47.70	7.52
7	4	102873	KUCERA John	1984	CAN	1:47.83	9.12
8	14	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:47.89	9.86
9	29	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:47.90	9.98
10	10	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN	1:47.92	10.23
11	6	191116	DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel	1977	FRA	1:47.99	11.09
12	5	501076	OLSSON Hans	1984	SWE	1:48.00	11.22
13	18	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT	1:48.01	11.34
14	15	533131	SULLIVAN Marco	1980	USA	1:48.02	11.46
15	19	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:48.03	11.59
16	20	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:48.10	12.45
17	8	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:48.21	13.81
18	22	350032	BUECHEL Marco	1971	LIE	1:48.29	14.79
19	11	510767	HOFFMANN Ambrosi	1977	SUI	1:48.39	16.02
20	1	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:48.42	16.39
21	21	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:48.60	18.61
22	32	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	1:48.80	21.08
23	41	561067	PERKO Rok	1985	SLO	1:48.81	21.20
23	30	50423	MAIER Hermann	1972	AUT	1:48.81	21.20
25	28	510747	GRUENENFELDER Tobias	1977	SUI	1:48.87	21.94
26	7	50451	GRUBER Christoph	1976	AUT	1:48.94	22.80
27	27	533866	NYMAN Steven	1982	USA	1:49.00	23.54
28	2	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT	1:49.01	23.67
29	31	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:49.12	25.02
30	39	192932	FAYED Guillermo	1985	FRA	1:49.14	25.27
31	36	290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA	1:49.17	25.64
32	34	201606	KEPPLER Stephan	1983	GER	1:49.19	25.88
33	46	293550	MARSAGLIA Matteo	1985	ITA	1:49.22	26.25
34	44	150421	ZAHROBSKY Petr	1980	CZE	1:49.24	26.50
35	24	191964	POISSON David	1982	FRA	1:49.29	27.12
36	33	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	1:49.35	27.86
37	60	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	1:49.38	28.23
37	38	191591	BERTRAND Yannick	1980	FRA	1:49.38	28.23
39	63	50600	GOERGL Stephan	1978	AUT	1:49.54	30.20
40	35	50761	ALSTER Christoph	1980	AUT	1:49.55	30.32
41	25	292291	THANEI Stefan	1981	ITA	1:49.72	32.42
42	49	201542	STRODL Peter	1982	GER	1:49.79	33.28
43	37	511139	KUENG Patrick	1984	SUI	1:49.87	34.27
44	51	530939	WEIBRECHT Andrew	1986	USA	1:50.00	35.87
45	48	294911	PATSCHEIDER Hagen	1988	ITA	1:50.06	36.61
45	47	561087	MARKIC Gasper	1986	SLO	1:50.06	36.61
47	43	51327	PUCHNER Joachim	1987	AUT	1:50.10	37.10
48	54	103090	HELIE Louis-Pierre	1986	CAN	1:50.14	37.59
48	53	421400	MYHRE Lars Elton	1984	NOR	1:50.14	37.59
50	45	511142	LUEOEND Vitus	1984	SUI	1:50.18	38.09
51	52	40171	BRANCH Craig	1977	AUS	1:50.36	40.31
52	57	103375	NELLA Tyler	1988	CAN	1:50.54	42.52
53	55	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	1:50.58	43.02
54	61	220695	CRAWFORD Douglas	1987	GBR	1:50.93	47.33
55	42	192122	PITTIN Alexandre	1983	FRA	1:51.46	53.86
56	59	501230	ERICSSON Daniel	1987	SWE	1:51.95	59.90
57	62	191746	DE TESSIERES Gauthier	1981	FRA	1:53.61	80.37
Disqualified 1st run
	58	561085	KRIZAJ Andrej	1986	SLO
	50	561006	GLEBOV Alek	1983	SLO
Did not finish 1st run
	56	533842	FRANCIS Kevin	1982	USA
	40	50919	STRUGER Peter	1982	AUT
	26	534939	FISHER Erik	1985	USA
	23	500150	JAERBYN Patrik	1969	SWE