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Jessica Frotten selected for Parapan Games

Whitehorse's Jessica Frotten had a hugely productive weekend. She raced the best in Canada and has now been selected to represent Canada.
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Whitehorse’s Jessica Frotten had a hugely productive weekend.

She raced the best in Canada and has now been selected to represent Canada.

Frotten sped to five medals at the 2015 Canadian Track and Field Championships in Edmonton over the weekend.

With her hardware-laden results, the para wheelchair racer has been selected for Team Canada for the Parapan American Games in Toronto, Saskatoon’s Star Phoenix reports.

“It was a painfully slow track, just really soft, but I’m happy with all my results,” said Frotten.

“Coming off the fastest track in the world in Switzerland to this track, it was almost like pushing through sand,” she added. “But I’m happy with where I placed in all the races and my times weren’t far off the leaders.”

Frotten won silver in the 100-metre, finishing just 0.53 seconds behind Quebec’s Ilana Dupont, a Paralympian medalist.

The 27-year-old then claimed silver in the 1,500-metre, beating Dupont with a time of 4:12.26.

Frotten also won bronze in the 400-, 800- and 200-metre races. In the 200 she placed fourth overall behind a racer from Bermuda who was ineligible for a national medal.

“I felt the 200 was a really good race for me - and the 1,500, I had a really good finish in that one for second place,” said Frotten. “I kind of got in a bad spot in the 800 and couldn’t make a move I wanted to when I needed to.”

It should also be noted Frotten, a T53 racer, was competing in a joint T34-51-53-54 division in Edmonton.

“A lot of my family came out to watch me and once again they are the loudest ones in the stands,” said Frotten, who races for the Saskatoon Cyclones track team. “It makes my heart so full.”

The Parapan Am Games, which will take place August 7-15, won’t be Frotten’s first taste of international competition this season. She competed at three back-to-back international competitions in Switzerland last month, posting personal best times in all her events.

With those times Frotten is currently ranked sixth in the world for the 100-metre in the International Paralympic Committee’s world rankings for T53. Her other rankings include eighth in the 200, 13th in the 400, 15th in the 800 and 10th in the 1,500.

Frotten won two gold and a silver at last year’s track nationals and captured three bronze at the 2013 Canada Summer Games.

Frotten wasn’t the only athlete doing the territory proud in Edmonton.

Whitehorse’s Lindsay Carson battled sweltering heat and the best runners in Canada to take fourth in the elite women’s 5,000-metre on July 2.

“It was a strategic race, a sit-and-kick race,” said Carson. “No one was out there a fast time, they were all just there for placing.”

The 25-year-old qualified for nationals at the Portland Track Festival in mid-June. She took fourth out of 12 with a time of 16:46.23 in Edmonton.

“It was blisteringly hot. My race was at 7:30 at night and it was still above 30 degrees,” said Carson.

“With about four laps to go, that’s when a significant move was made. I tried to hold on as long as I could, but unfortunately the three girls who placed ahead of me ... broke away, and at that point I just tried to maintain my position.”

“I would have liked a podium finish, but the girls ahead of me are equally deserving,” she added. “It’s a good competition this year in the 5K, so I’m just happy I was in amongst the ranks.”

Carson placed 10th at the Canadian 10-Kilometre Road Race Championships in Ottawa at the end of May, a couple months after taking 59th at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in China.

“Track is more my background. I’ve been doing more road races now that I’m out of university. It’s harder to find track races post-collegiately,” said Carson.

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com