Sylvia Jackson

Sylvia Jackson took up canoeing as a 17-year-old in March 1963 and four months later was the British junior women’s canoe racing champion. In 1965 she was third in the senior national K-1 championship and that same year finished second in the prestigious Sella River Race in Spain.

Jackson went on to become a leading British female kayaker in the second half of the 1960s. She reached the 1966 World Championships K-1 final in East Berlin, and at the following year’s Europeans at Duisburg failed to make the semis despite recording a personal best. At the Mexico Olympics, Jackson was eliminated after finishing sixth in her heat, and then fifth in the repêchage. By profession, Jackson was a secretary.