Whistler’s Broderick Thompson earned the first giant slalom victory of his FIS-level racing career on Tuesday (Jan. 22) in France, continuing a solid string of results during a European swing with the B.C. Ski Team.
Thompson posted the fastest second run at Ancelle on Tuesday to take over the lead and earn the win by eight-tenths of a second.
It was the third-straight top-10 finish for Thompson in three days, as he was seventh and ninth in slalom races at Chaillol, France in the two days prior. He also posted a 12th-place result in slalom at Sestriere, Italy, last week.
While Thompson has been solid overseas, other local skiers have been racking up great results closer to home.
Charley Field earned her first wins of the season when she won the Van Houtte Cup giant slaloms held Jan. 10 and 11 at Alberta’s Mt. Norquay. She won both races by a wide margin, holding a four-second advantage over the field in one victory. Fellow B.C. Ski Team member Emma King then finished second when the series continued with a slalom on Jan. 13 at Norquay.
Several other Whistler girls had strong results over four days of racing. Rachel Vander Veen had three top-six finishes in all, her best a fourth place behind Field on Jan. 11. Kelly Steeves had two fifth-place results and was in the top 10 for all four races. Elizabeth Kepl had a consistent week and had one eighth-place GS finish.
Blake Ramsden also had good outings at Norquay in the men’s races. The B.C. Ski Team member picked up a pair of silver medals — one in each discipline — during the week of races. Whistler Mountain Ski Club (WMSC) product Kyle Yates had a fourth-place finish in GS at the event as well.
U14s on podium at Hemlock
WMSC athletes snapped up most of the podium positions during U14 Coast Zone races at Hemlock Resort over the weekend, an event that also included ski cross on top of the technical disciplines.
Kasper Woolley won both of Saturday’s (Jan. 19) one-run boys’ slalom races after a silver the lone GS race held Friday (Jan. 18). Finn Iles was right behind him in second in the two slalom events, while Kyle Alexander followed his GS win with a bronze in Saturday’s first race to make it a Whistler podium sweep.
Masashi Tsutsumi, Davis Bonsall-Jevning, Asher Jordan and Griffin Smith were other Whistler skiers recording a top-five finish at Hemlock.
Mollie Jepsen won the girls’ GS on Friday by just .04 seconds over teammate Katie Fleckenstein. Anna Gosney was fifth in that race. Jepsen also took a silver from the second slalom on Saturday, sharing the podium with Whistler skier and bronze medallist Ella Renzoni.
Gosney, finishing second, and Fleckenstein, in third, had been on the slalom podium earlier in the day, while Nicole Mah also had a top-five result.
Sunday’s (Jan. 20) ski cross used two-person teams, not necessarily based on club affiliations. Woolley and Iles were paired up and won the boys’ event; Alexander and partner Andrew Lee of Grouse Mountain were second and Yates and Filipovic finished third together.
In the girls’ race, Fleckenstein and Grouse’s Kristina Natalenko took top spot. Whistler’s Alissa Wong and Grouse skier Lucia Plunkett teamed up for silver while the all-Whistler team of Jepsen and Mah were third.
