HAFJELL, Norway (AP) – Coming off her Olympic milestone, Janica Kostelic is now within reach of the World Cup overall title.

The Croat won the combined Saturday, edging Anja Paerson by 0.13 seconds. Kostelic, who won the Olympic combined gold at the Turin Games, had a total time of 2 minutes, 6.92 seconds in the super-G and slalom.

Paerson, the two-time defending World Cup champion, posted the fastest slalom time, but it wasn’t enough. The Swede trailed Kostelic and Michaela Dorfmeister by 0.41 after the super-G.

Lindsey Kildow, the American who shared the win with Dorfmeister and Nadia Styger of Switzerland in an unprecedented three-way tie in Friday’s super-G, finished fourth in 2:08.31.

Kostelic has 1,500 points in the overall standings, with Paerson next at 1,241. They are followed by Dorfmeister (1,178) and Kildow (857).

After next week’s slalom races in Finland, the season ends with the World Cup Finals on March 15-19 at Are, Sweden.

This was Kostelic’s 26th career World Cup victory and sixth this season, coming after illness cut short a record-breaking Olympics. Her win in the combined in Turin made her the most successful female racer in Olympic history with four career gold medals.

Kostelic did not attend a post-race news conference because of a back problem, organizers said.

Paerson, bothered by sore knees, hopes to compete in two World Cup slaloms next weekend at Levi, Finland.

“It’s day to day,” she said. “Right now, my knees are in pretty good shape and I think I will go to Finland next week if nothing happens tomorrow (in the giant slalom).”

This was the first time a World Cup combined consisted of a super-G and a slalom. Normally it’s downhill and slalom.

“Any kind of combined is cool,” Paerson said.

“I think the super combined is pretty good because it’s just a one-run slalom and it gives the speed skiers a better chance. I think the super-combined is something that will stay. For me, it’s better than the normal combined with the two-run slalom.”

Dorfmeister, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the speed events last month, managed only 35th in the slalom and dropped to 15th.

Her Austrian teammate, Marlies Schild, finished third in 2:07.57 after recording the second-fastest slalom time behind Paerson. Kostelic had the third-fastest slalom time.

The meet at Hafjell, where most of the women’s Alpine ski events were held during the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, ends Sunday with a giant slalom.

With only two races left, Paerson can clinch the giant slalom title by finishing ahead of Maria Jose Rienda of Spain at Hafjell. She won the title in 2003.

“The first time I won the GS cup was here in Hafjell, and it would be fun to take it again and do it in the same place,” Paerson said.

AP-ES-03-04-06 1525EST