Yukon’s own Jessica Frotten took on the world today, wheeling to a seventh overall finish in the 200-metre wheelchair race.

The 27-year-old crossed the finish line of the T53 event in 33.07, behind fellow Canadian Ilana Dupont, who finished fifth in 29.33.

Australia’s Angela Ballard took gold in 29.33.

Frotten’s personal best time in the 200 is 32.35.

The Whitehorse native is one of 35 Canadian athletes participating at the 2015 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships in Qatar. The event began yesterday and runs until month’s end.

Frotten said she actually botched today’s race after psyching herself out on the first corner.

“I’m not very happy with it,” she said in a message to the Star this morning. “I screwed up in the first corner and couldn’t recover. ... Pretty bummed, but I’m going to forget about that one and focus on the next one.”

Aside from the 200, Frotten will also compete in the 100-, 400- and 800-metre events.

Her coach with the Saskatoon Cyclones, Rick Reelie, is in Qatar, serving as Canada’s wheelchair athletics coach.

Reelie said Frotten was “fit, fast and focused” heading into her first world championship competition.

“Nervously anxious to get things started is how I would describe her state, naturally so,” he said. “She’s here because she earned it and that’s a confidence boost.

“Our goal is to focus on one race at a time and execute the technical aspects of her races.”

Prior to the world championships in Qatar, Frotten spent six days training in Dubai and never looked better, Reelie added.

Frotten’s next event is the 100, with the final going Saturday, followed by the 400 Sunday and then the 800 – with that final going Tuesday.

Qatar is in the Arabia Standard Time zone, exactly 10 hours ahead of Pacific time.

Frotten recently vowed she would give it her all in an interview with the Regina Leader-Post.

“You get out what you put in and I’ve really been training super-duper hard,” she told the Leader-Post.

“It’s not a total surprise, but sometimes I’m like: ‘Holy crap, I can’t believe I’m actually going this fast, or keeping up with these other racers that have been, in reality, racing for pretty much their whole lives.’”

Frotten also noted she didn’t grow up an athlete, and even failed gym in Grade 8.

Due to Internet issues, proud dad Howard Frotten was unable to watch his daughter’s first final from Whitehorse this morning.

But he saw the semifinals, and as usual was impressed.

“My Internet froze for that three minutes, just as the gun went off,” he chuckled. “By the time we got it back, it was all over with.”

He and Jessica’s sister, Megan Frotten, will be watching faithfully from here on out.

“I talk to her on Facebook every day,” Howard Frotten said. “She’s just so pleased to have qualified. She never even expected that. She’s doing wonderful.”

Having his daughter finish seventh in the world is hard to fathom, he admitted.

Jessica Frotten was paralyzed from the waist down as the result of a car crash outside of Whitehorse nearly six years ago.

“This life change has been nothing but great for her,” her dad said. “Where Jessie was going before this accident happened to her, nobody knows.

“She was a bit of a wild child, and she has just turned everything around. She has focus and knows what she wants to do.”

Howard Frotten also believes she is doing a lot of this for her late mother, Shelagh Boyle-Frotten, who died in 2013.

“Her mother loved the Olympics, eh? That’s the only time I could ever get this woman to watch a hockey game,” he laughed.

“It was only for the Olympics ... She would phone her sister in Calgary and they would watch the Olympics together on the phone.”

Howard Frotten also said none of this would have come to fruition without the support of the Yukon community.

“To get her where she is, the people of the Yukon did a bunch of fundraising. (Musician) Gordie Tentrees did an amazing thing. He bought her a chair and then also got her to her first big event in Switzerland.”

The Yukon government has also begun to support Frotten financially, he noted.

The world championships event is being hosted out of the Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, a venue which can seat up to 12,000.

It is one of the last major competitions ahead of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Competition features 1,300 athletes from 90 countries.

Doha is the capital of Qatar, with a population of just over two million.

The 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships is the seventh edition of the event, which was first staged in 1994 in Berlin.

At the last world championships in Lyon, France, in 2013, Russia topped the medal standings with 53 medals, including 26 gold.

The United States finished second with 52 medals, followed by Brazil with 40.

Canada took home 15.