SINGAPORE – Netball Singapore (NS) has received a boost ahead of a busy year for the national team, with local biotechnology company MiRXES coming on board as title sponsor of the 2023 and 2024 Nations Cup.
As part of the two-year sponsorship, with an option to extend for a further three years, announced on Thursday, the company – which specialises in multi-cancer early detection solutions – will also provide health screenings for national players. The deal is worth about $200,000 in cash and kind.
The screenings will help the players optimise their body for performance by helping them understand their unique body baseline – which includes information on their glucose levels, blood pressure and other health markers.
This also helps them identify potential health risks and areas in which they are doing well. Plans, which include tips on nutrition and wellness, will then be customised for each player to address those issues while catering to their individual lifestyles.
The 2023 Nations Cup will take place in October, in between the Netball World Cup in South Africa (July) and the Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games in Thailand (November).
To prepare for the quadrennial World Cup, they will also compete in the Pacific-Australia series on the Gold Coast in April and go on a training tour of South Africa in June. At the last edition of the Cup in 2019, Singapore finished 16th.
The annual Nations Cup typically takes place at the end of the year and features six teams. At the previous edition in December, Botswana clinched their first title after beating Fiji in the final, while Singapore were third.
The last title sponsor of the tournament was M1 in 2019. The competition was not staged in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.
NS president Jessica Tan thanked MiRXES for its support as the sponsorship would help raise the level of the national squads by allowing them to embark on more training tours and competitions overseas against more experienced opponents.
It also ties in with NS’ plans of holding a South-east Asian Development Cup and Singapore-Malaysia series next year, she noted.
She added: “We’re excited and very pleased to have the sponsorship because... this allows us to increase not just the number of programmes, but also their quality, for our players.”
National player Charmaine Soh added: “Healthcare is the most important element of our lives and, with 2023 being a big year for us, we’re grateful to have MiRXES here to support Singapore netball. I’m looking forward to learning more about its technology and how it can help me live my best life off the court.”
Isaac Ho, MiRXES’ co-founder and chief investment officer, noted that NS’ programmes cater to people of all ages and encourage healthy living through physical activity.
He added: “This goes hand in hand with MiRXES’ mission to make early disease detection accessible and affordable in the community, ensuring Singaporeans lead healthier and longer lives.
“Through this partnership, we hope to complement NS’ initiatives by raising awareness of the importance of preventive health and how MiRXES’ products and services are enabling preventive healthcare and precision medicine, aligned with Singapore’s Healthier SG initiative.”
