Whitehorse’s Jessica Frotten took a trip down memory lane over the weekend.
She returned to Quebec’s Universite de Sherbrooke, the scene of her very first national competition – the 2013 Canada Summer Games where she won three bronze medals.
This time she took home three bronze and a silver.
The 28-year-old para wheelchair racer collected four medals at the Ian Hume Invitational, her final meet before next month’s track and field nationals that are also trials for the Rio Paralympic Games.
“That track, I thought it was in quite good shape in 2013. It’s just torn up now,” said Frotten. “It’s like a gravel road. But it was kind of cool to go back there and race there.”
Frotten posted B standard qualifying times for the three events she hopes to race at the Rio Games.
She took silver in the 100-metre with a time of 19.37, just 0.32 seconds from the A standard time for Rio. Frotten reached the A standard with a personal best time of 18.24 at a meet in Victoria, B.C. in May. She is currently 12th in the International Paralympic Committee world rankings for the 100.
“They were running all the classes together … Diane Roy (the gold medalist in the 400 and 800) is a T54, so me and Ilana (Dupont) were technically one and two all the time,” said Frotten, a T53 racer.
Frotten took bronze in the 400-metre with a season-best time of 1:01.71, just 0.71 seconds from the A standard, and way under the B standard cutoff of 1:10.00. Her time puts her 15th in the world in the IPC standings.
“I’ve made all the B standards over and over and over again, but I’d feel a lot more comfortable if I had an A in the 400,” said Frotten. “I have consistently been making the 100-metre A standard.”
Frotten also took bronze in the 800-metre at 2:05.43, just 5.43 seconds from the A standard, and bronze in the 200-metre, which is not an event at the Rio Games.
“I really like the 200 – it’s a fun race,” said Frotten. “I’m actually going to race it at trials too just because I’m pretty sure it’s on the last day. I think more people should be racing it to show the International Paralympic Committee that people want to race it … They should put it back on the schedule.”
Frotten, who races for the Saskatoon Cyclones Racing Club, won five medals at the 2015 track nationals.
With those results she was selected for the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games where she won medals in two of her three events.
Frotten then made two finals at the International Paralympic Committee Athletics World Championships last fall in Doha, Qatar, placing seventh in the 200-metre and eighth in the 100-metre.
The Canadian Track and Field Championships will take place July 7-10 in Edmonton.
“I feel pretty good about it all. I’m happy I don’t have to travel anywhere and race anywhere for a little bit,” said Frotten. “The travel part has been wearing me out more than the racing part. It’ll be nice to stay home, stay in routine, and get ready for trials.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com