Table tennis duo claims Manitoba's 1st medal of Canada Winter Games

Team Manitoba has its first medal of the 2023 Canada Winter Games.

Winnipeg teenagers Grace Qi and Victoria Lee captured a silver medal in female doubles table tennis in Prince Edward Island on Monday, according to a Team Manitoba news release.

The silver medal for Qi, 15, and Lee, 14, marked the first Team Manitoba medal in table tennis since 2011, despite dropping the gold-medal match 3-1 to the Ontario duo of Demi Cai and Jessie Xiaorong Xu.

Lee and Qi posted a 1-1 record in group play, before sweeping Saskatchewan's Aryanna Liu and Lucy Fan 3-0 and advancing past Nelina Murdanaigum and Alice Provencher of Quebec 3-1 in the semifinal round.

"This game means a lot to all of us. It's very intense, I'm so proud with what our team accomplished today, we didn't expect too much, but I'm so happy our athletes fought until the end," Team Manitoba table tennis coach Arvin Tronco said in a statement.

Both losses for the Manitoba duo came at the hands of Cai and Xiaorong Xu.

Lee and teammate Charles Belches finished fifth in the mixed doubles event on Sunday, while Qi and partner Jeremy Huang came in eighth.

Both Qi and Lee are also slated to compete in the female team event on Tuesday, as well as the singles event on Thursday.