At the end of his Giant Slalom run in today's Super Combined at the Vancouver Paralympic Games, Cameron Rahles-Rahbula admitted he "needed a miracle" to put himself on the podium after the Slalom run later in the day.

Well, miracles do happen.Rahles-Rahbula simply stunned the world's best to post the fastest Slalom time and snatch the Super Combined bronze medal, his second and Australia's fourth medal at these Games.

Languishing in eighth position and nearly four seconds off the leader after the Super-G, Rahles-Rahbula was a forlorn figure as he spoke to the media after his opening effort.

"I really just didn't attack it. I didn't race it. That wasn't good. I think I tried to ski too pretty. It'll have to be a miracle for me to get on the podium now," he said.

Less than three hours later, his booming smile just would not leave his face as he spoke to the same media contingent after his Slalom run with a Paralympic bronze medal hanging from around his neck.

Gold went to German alpine king, Gerd Schonfelder - his 16th in his Paralympic career and fourth for Vancouver - while France skier Vincent Gauthier-Manuel took silver.

"To come out with the Bronze is unbelievable. I definitely didn't think I would catch up that amount of time," Rahles-Rahbula said.

"To finish on such a high is just amazing."

Competing in his third Paralympic Games, it was Rahles-Rahbula's second Paralympic medal after he won bronze in the men's standing Slalom at Whistler Creekside five days ago.

Asked whether Sochi was now in his sights, the 27-year-old was non-committal."I don't know if my partner Emily would be too happy about that one," Rahles-Rahbula.

"It just depends on how my body holds up."

"I will just re-evaluate at home, when I am on a beach somewhere."

The bronze medal was the culmination of Australia's alpine skiing campaign at the Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

It brought Australia's alpine total to four - one silver (Marty Mayberry in Downhill) and three bronze (Rahles-Rahbula in Super Combined and Slalom; Jess Gallagher in Slalom).

That is double the total medals won at the Torino Paralympic Games four years ago, a stunning result according to Australian Winter Paralympic coach Steve Graham.

"It's an awesome result. We could have thrown the towel in a couple of times this week because of the conditions, but we hung tough and I think we just our just reward at the end," Graham said.

"A day like today is the reason why you coach.

"Honestly, it was a course that you attack from the get-go all the way to the last gate. You couldn't take shortcuts and you get didn't get any easy yards.

"The best slalom skiers came to the fore today and Cam is the best Slalom skier. He's showed that time and time again and he showed again this week. He won a bronze in really tough conditions early five days ago when the conditions didn't suit him and he's the current world champion."

In other Australian results today, sit-skier Shannon Dallas (NSW), who was 9th after the first Super-G run, did not finish the Slalom second run and was unplaced.Leg-amputee Toby Kane (NSW) and vision-impaired skier Melissa Perrine (NSW) failed to finish the Super-G course.

For Kane, it brought to an end a disappointing Games that saw one of Australia's leading medal hopes finish the Games empty handed.

"I haven't been skiing that fast here. You know, I've been making mistakes."

"I wanted to come here and get the job done but I'm really glad that Marty, and Cam did."

Australia's Paralympic Games campaign comes to end tomorrow when its two Nordic competitors - Tasmania Dominic Monypenny and Victorian Millar - compete in the 1km Sprint.

Source - APC

tags: olympic, paralympics, bronze, medal, super, combined, cameron, rahles, rahbula

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