Jessica Lewis made an encouraging start to her new season after setting a personal best time in the 400 metres on the final day of the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai.

The 29-year-old wheelchair racer clocked 58.12sec, eclipsing her previous best of 58.52, as she claimed a fifth-place finish in the T53 women’s final on Tuesday.

Catherine Debrunner, of Switzerland claimed gold in a blistering time of 50.17, more than two seconds ahead of Britain’s Samantha Kinghorn, with China’s Hongzhuan Zhou completing the podium places.

The performance capped off a promising outing at the championships for Lewis, who also finished fifth in both the T53 800m final on the first day of competition on Sunday, and in the T52/53 100m final on Monday, with Debrunner winning both.

“I had a bit of a slow start at the competition and was feeling a bit frustrated after my 100m race as it didn’t go as well as I was hoping,” Lewis said.

“I knew coming in that it was going to be a very high level of competition with the majority of the fast women here. While I didn’t want to put expectations on myself for the first competition, it is quite difficult not too sometimes.

“However, in my last race I came away with a personal best time of 58.12, which is a great way to end the competition. I am very happy with the personal best. It’s always a great sign that the training is working and I just have to trust in the process.”

Lewis, who recently switched to a new custom-made racing chair and altered her seating position in an attempt to increase her power, says she has learnt valuable lessons and has renewed motivation from the event ahead of the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris in July and the Parapan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, in November.

“Overall I am happy with my performances andI am excited to make some adjustments to move me forward through the rest of the season,” she added.

“We are going to make some adjustments to training and will be testing out a new push-rim size in the coming weeks before my next set of competitions. Having finished fifth among that level of competition gives me motivation over the next few months to get ready for the World Para Athletics Championships.”