Canoe Sprint GP Sydney: Rising paddling star Jasmine Locke chasing Australian selection

This teenager has been selected in three Australian teams in two years but doesn’t have a single piece of Aussie kit to show for it - or any sort of memory of it.

Young paddler Jasmine Locke. Pic: Supplied

Young paddler Jasmine Locke is waiting for the day she can finally race in Australian colours.

The 19-year-old is one of a band of unlucky young Australian sports people to have their international careers put in ice for 24 months due to Covid.

Despite being selected in both under 23 and open Australian paddle teams, Locke has never been overseas, raced an international event or even received an Australian uniform.

Now the Bulli surf life saver is hoping for a change of luck at the Canoe Sprint GP at Penrith Regatta Centre this weekend.

Locke, from Towradgi near Wollongong, has her sights set on making the Australian Under 23 team for a series of World Cup and the world championships in Europe this year.

Young paddler Jasmin Locke. Pic: Supplied

“I’ve only been kayaking for three years and went to my fist nationals as a junior in 2020 and won the K1 U18 500, and that got me selection onto the U18 Australian team. But we didn;t travel because of Covid,’’ she said.

“Last year I made the under 23 Australian and senior team but still didn’t travel so I actually haven’t paddled for Australia.

“I have been named on three teams but never raced.’’

Locke is now looking back on her isolation from the rest of the world as a potential blessing in disguise.

“I am only relatively new to the sport so I have a lot to learn,” said Locke, who is in her second year of pre-med at Wollongong University.

“I stayed at home and got my technique better which will help my long term paddling.’'

Ironman Jonathon Crowe hugs actor Pamela Anderson during filming of the TV show Baywatch in 1996

And helping her improve her skills while Australia was locked away from the rest of the world was respected local paddling coach Terry Prosser and former ironman Jonathon Crowe, an Australian surf life saver who appeared on the hit US show Bay Watch with Pamela Anderson back in the late 1990s.

“I trained in the morning with him and it was great,’’ Locke said.

On Friday, Locke and Nutri-Grain ironwoman Jemma Smith from the Central Coast finished third in the women’s K2 500m final.

The event was won by Aly Clarke form Queensland and Georgia Sinclair from the Central Coast.

Western Australian Yale Steinepreis and Hunters Hills paddler Ella Beere were second in the race. MORE RACING NEWS HERE

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Originally published as Canoe Sprint GP Sydney: Rising paddling star Jasmine Locke chasing Australian selection