Young athlete Esme Durrant celebrates a successful 2018 canoe slalom season with Tracsis' support

Esme Durrant is a junior athlete who is currently sponsored by Tracsis/MPEC Technology to compete in Canoe Slalom, an Olympic sport for both men and women who race in different categories. These categories are C1 – Canoe, K1 – Kayak single and C2 – Canoe Double.

Last year, Tracsis’ support allowed Esme to purchase two new Slalom ST Cag Decks which are a new slimmer design, providing athletes with more room whilst manoeuvring through gates, as well as improving their overall accuracy and speed. In addition, the support allowed Esme to purchase a Wild Water Racer boat, the Una model, to aid her training and preparation for the European Junior Championships.

Through its continued support, Tracsis has not only enabled Esme make improvements in Slalom, but in Wild Water Racing too!

Slalom Training and Racing

Esme is currently training and racing slalom in both canoe and kayak disciplines. Following the summer break, she competed in Nottingham at the Holme Pierrepoint White Water Course and Bala in Wales, continuing to make improvements and finishing in good positions. Esme is currently ranked 17^th Woman in K1 and 8^th Woman in C1. She is also ranked 6^th out of all the female juniors in both canoe and kayak. In addition, Esme has recently represented England as part of the Pan Celtic team, which is a smaller competition between England, Scotland and Wales.

Wild Water Racing - British Open

At the start of September, she competed in the British Open National Ranking race. This took place in Nottingham at Holme Pierrepoint. After a long weekend racing, Esme finished second junior in the sprint and first junior in the classic, making her the British Junior Champion in the classic race!

Wild Water Racing - European Championships

In February 2018, Esme was selected go to the European Championships in Macedonia, following a successful selection race in Grand Tully, Scotland. She headed out to Macedonia at the end of July for a few days training before racing began, paddling on the Skopje Wild Water course.

Racing started with the classic race which is a longer race, lasting 10-20 minutes. There is also the sprint event, which is the short race over the length of the white water course. Also, in the discipline of Wild Water Racing there are the team events for both Sprint and Classic where the athletes do the run as a group of three boats. Esme’s team finished 5^th in the Sprint race and 3^rd in the Classic Race, becoming European medalists and giving them a place on the podium.

Thank you Tracsis!

Tracsis’ support has allowed Esme to continue on her canoeing journey by providing some of the best equipment available. Our backing has aided Esme in her progression and allowed her to begin the international pathway she has always dreamed of, with hopefully many more medals to come!

Good Luck for 2019 Esme!