Tessa Warkentine during a race this year (Photo Courtesy Of Ian Austen).

A pair of Winkler skiers are back home after representing Manitoba at the Eastern Canadian Championships in Gatineau, Quebec February 5th to 7th.

Levi and Tessa Warkentine are brother and sister, and both were part of Team Manitoba at the 2016 Easterns. Both of the athletes failed to reached the podium, but noted it was still a great learning experience, and made them want to train even harder to improve on their finishes this year.

"We had some really good results. We got a couple of people on the podium," shared Levi. "I personally had some of my best results of all time. I beat out a Junior National team member. I can't really complain about my racing at all."

Meanwhile, Tessa stated the experience was a great learning experience for her.

"I kind of knew going into it, that it was going to be more of an experience," said Tessa. "I wasn't really much of a competitor, but it was great just to be racing against all of these people, to see how fast they were, and how I could be that fast in the future."

Tessa stated she now wants to do more training to help her become more of a competitor at these events in the future. Her goal for the coming year is to secure her spot on Team Manitoba.

"I need to continue to work to stay on top of a few people in the province," said Tessa.

Levi has set his sights on competing at the Nationals event in March. He noted there is a thirty kilometre race, and a relay race that he would like to partake in.

Levi Warkentine during a race this year (Photo Courtesy Of Ian Austen).