Going head to head against the best young racers in the world, Whistler skiers produced top-flight results to lead the Canadian team to the overall title at the 2009 Whistler Cup.

Fresh off his fine performance at the Canadian K2 Championships, where he won two silver medals and finished third overall out of all of the 13-and 14-year-old men’s racers, Broderick Thompson opened the Whistler Cup weekend by speeding to gold on his home hill in Friday’s (April 10) K2 men’s super G race.

Shooting out of the gate second in a course on Raven and Ptarmigan that challenged many of the racers, Thompson laid down a time of one minute, 6.47 seconds to beat Americans Thomas Robles and Eric Haferman to the top of the podium.

“It was a smooth, solid run. I knew the course, knew the terrain, so I just laid it down,” Thompson, 14, told The Question after receiving his gold medal at the Whistler Cup opening ceremony in the Village Square.

Not to be outdone, 14-year-old Whistlerite Kailee Darlington won a silver medal in Friday’s K2 women’s super G race, despite racing with a broken wrist she sustained in the giant slalom race at the national championships, where she still managed to finish sixth after winning silver in the super combined event.

Darlington’s super G time of 1:07.87 placed her second behind Bara Strakova of the Czech Republic, who edged out Darlington with her time of 1:07.54. American Mikaela Shiffrin finished third.

“The super G on the first day went really well for me, I skied one of my personal best runs,” Darlington told The Question at Sunday’s (April 12) closing ceremony. With the rain finally ceasing as the celebration began, Darlington and Thompson picked the Nancy Greene and Dave Murray awards for top female and male Canadian K2 racers, and the Canadian team members hoisted the trophy awarded to the overall Whistler Cup winning country.

Completing a stellar Friday for the Whistler Mountain Ski Club (WMSC), the hardworking host club for the international event that featured more than 390 athletes from 20 countries, 12-year-old Kelly Steeves finished third and Marc Leroux eighth as the K1 skiers attacked the slalom course set on the Dave Murray Downhill.

“I am surrounded by amazing people. Broderick and Kailee are awesome. It’s nice to know that being around them I am getting better and better,” Steeves said in a statement.

The local athletes continued their strong skiing throughout the often weather-challenged weekend, with Thompson leading the way in Saturday’s (April 11) foggy races with his third-place finish in the K2 men’s slalom event.

Darlington blasted to an eighth-place finish in the women’s K2 slalom race, and Steeves skied into the top 10 in the women’s K1 giant slalom event with her 10th-place result. Riley Seger, a first-year K1 racer, came up with an impressive top-10 finish of his own by speeding to an eighth-place finish in the men’s K1 giant slalom race.

Thompson and Darlington closed out the competition with another set of top-10 results in Sunday’s K2 giant slalom races. Thompson finished seventh in the men’s one-run GS event, where two Finnish skiers sandwiched a Japanese silver medallist on the podium, while Darlington tied for eighth in the women’s race as Strakova won the event ahead of two Americans, Paula Moltzan and slalom winner Shiffrin.

The Whistler Cup is touted as a compelling first taste of international ski racing for the 11- to 14-year-old competitors, and Whistler’s world championship slalom medallist Michael Janyk added to that impression at the closing ceremony as he told the crowd of young racers how he’s still battling some of his Whistler Cup rivals on the elite stage.

Thompson and Darlington won the awards for the top Canadian K1 racers at the 2007 Whistler Cup, and Darlington said it felt “really, really good” to claim the same title at the K2 level, especially with her broken left wrist turning simple movements like tucking and gripping her pole into painful experiences.

The weekend’s results were “definitely what I hoped would happen — I was hoping for a gold, but I was happy with what I got,” she said, adding, “My wrist hurts, but I battled through the pain.”

Darlington said the course setters did an “amazing” job, and she felt extremely comfortable racing against the international field on her home hill.

“The competition was really high, so I’m really happy that I was in there,” she said.