From 19th at regional schools athletics to the ACT Championships, Jasmine’s journey is a reminder that young athletes don’t all develop at the same time — or follow the same path.
Three years ago, Jasmine Smyth finished 19th in the 13-year-old girls’ 200m at the ACT Secondary North Region athletics carnival.
Her time was 32.88 seconds.
A year later, she returned to the same competition, this time in the 14-year-old age group, and finished 12th in 31.91 seconds.
Then came 2026.
Jasmine ran 30.01 seconds to finish fifth at the regional championships before progressing to her first ACT Secondary Schools Track and Field Championships, where she finished tenth in the 15-year-old girls’ 200m.
From 19th at regionals to competing at the ACT Championships.
That’s a journey worth recognising.
And what’s particularly interesting about Jasmine is that athletics is only one part of her sporting life.
A little bit of everything
Jasmine isn’t somebody who has spent her childhood concentrating exclusively on sprinting.
She enjoys a range of sports, including soccer and futsal, alongside her athletics commitments. She’s also taken on cross-country running and longer-distance events.
During the 2025–26 athletics season, her first with FAST, Jasmine was recognised as the Under 15 Age Champion at Corroboree Athletics.
She also represented her school in ACT cross-country competition during 2026.
Then, on 5 October, she finished second in the Under 17 girls’ 4km event at a Sri Chinmoy race, averaging 5:37 per kilometre.
That’s quite a variety of running for somebody who is also developing as a 200m sprinter.
And we like that.
At FAST, we don’t believe every young athlete needs to decide what they’re going to specialise in before they’ve had the opportunity to explore different sports and events.
Running is a skill that connects many sporting activities. Acceleration, coordination, movement efficiency and the ability to produce speed are useful whether an athlete is sprinting down a straight, chasing a football or finding space during a game.
Jasmine’s sporting interests give her opportunities to develop those abilities in different environments.
They also give her something equally important: variety and enjoyment.
Finding another gear
Jasmine’s improvement over 200m has been encouraging.
Her progression from 32.88 seconds in 2024 to 30.01 seconds in 2026 represents an improvement of 2.87 seconds.
But the times only tell part of the story.
In 2024, she was finishing well down the field at regional level. In 2025, she was moving closer to the leading athletes. By September 2026, she was fifth in her regional competition and had earned the opportunity to compete at the ACT Championships.
That progression began before Jasmine joined FAST, and it’s important to recognise the work and experiences that brought her to us.
What we’ve enjoyed during her first season is seeing her continue to develop, become more competitive and discover what might be possible.
She’s still learning. There’s plenty of room to improve her sprinting technique, coordination and running efficiency, just as there is for most developing athletes.
But that’s part of the attraction.
We don’t expect young athletes to arrive with everything already worked out.
We want to help them discover what they can do next.
Development doesn’t have a deadline
Jasmine’s journey also connects with something we’ve learned through our FAST ACT Development Study.
Young athletes develop at different rates.
Some are among the fastest at nine or ten years old. Others begin making significant improvements during their teenage years.
Early performance can tell us something about where an athlete is today, but it doesn’t determine where they’ll finish.
Jasmine’s progression from 19th at regional level to the ACT Championships is a useful reminder of that.
She didn’t need to be winning races at thirteen to have a reason to keep going.
She needed opportunities to participate, learn, enjoy her sport and continue improving.
And those opportunities matter just as much for the athlete who is currently finishing towards the back of the field as they do for somebody already collecting championship medals.
At FAST, that’s the development environment we’re working to create.
An unexpected interruption
Unfortunately, Jasmine’s sporting journey has recently encountered an unwelcome setback.
While playing futsal, she sustained a knee injury that has interrupted her training and competition plans. She’s now awaiting further medical assessment to establish the extent of the injury and what recovery will involve.
It’s disappointing, particularly after such an encouraging year.
But one injury doesn’t erase the progress she’s made or the experiences she’s gained.
For now, the priority is getting a clear diagnosis, following the appropriate medical advice and giving her knee the opportunity to recover properly.
There will be time to think about running again when she’s ready.
And whether her future interests take her further into athletics, soccer, futsal or another sport, the skills she’s been developing will remain part of her sporting experience.
There’s plenty more to discover
We don’t know what Jasmine’s next few years in sport will look like.
Perhaps she’ll continue improving over 200m. Perhaps she’ll discover an interest in another athletics event. Perhaps her greatest sporting achievements will come on a football field.
There’s no reason to decide that now.
What matters is that she’s already demonstrated something worth celebrating.
She’s kept participating, explored different sports and improved her running enough to progress from regional competition to the ACT Championships.
She’s also shown that an athlete’s journey doesn’t have to begin with exceptional results to become an interesting one.
For Jasmine, there’s still plenty to learn, plenty to enjoy and hopefully plenty more sporting experiences ahead.
Right now, we’d simply like to wish her well with her recovery.
We’re proud of the progress she’s made, and we look forward to seeing where her journey takes her.
How fast you are today is not where you finish.
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