Canada's Jack Crawford cracks top 5 in World Cup downhill stop in Italy

Canada's Jack Crawford finished fifth in a World Cup downhill in Val Gardena, Italy, on Saturday.

The 26-year-old super-G world champion from Toronto posted a time of two minutes 0.49 seconds, just 0.65 behind gold medallist Dominik Paris of Italy.

Paris dominated the event to claim his first victory in more than a year — and for Italy a first home win there in the discipline in more than 20 years.

The 34-year-old Paris punched the air and smiled broadly after crossing the line almost half a second faster than two-time defending downhill standings leader Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and then faced a lengthy wait in the leader's chair.

But as more and more skiers crossed slower than him, the outcome grew more likely and Paris' smile grew broader.

"It was a victory that really means a lot," Paris said. "I have always struggled on this slope, I made mistakes this time too ... the training day and Thursday's downhill gave me quite a bit of confidence, I understood that I had good margins.

"In past years I overdid this slope, this time I tried to be more relaxed, bring my speed, make the difference on the jumps that are very long here and at the end my time was a bit of a surprise even to me."