National women's floorball team get $20,000 boost from Nexia TS
The national women's floorball team have been handed a $20,000 fillip from local accounting firm Nexia TS - a first for the sport here.
The New Paper understands that the cash sponsorship will be channelled towards the 25-strong team's (including five team officials) airfare costs when they make their way to Bratislava, Slovakia for the World Floorball Championships (WFC) from Dec 1-9.
An air of optimism was evident during the official announcement event at the Singapore Sports Hub yesterday.
Singapore Floorball Association president Kenneth Ho said the deal bodes well for the sport, following the women's triumph in February during their WFC qualifying campaign in New Zealand, and the men's runners-up success in the Asia-Oceania Floorball Confederation Cup in Bangkok just last week.
Ho said: "Floorball in Singapore is moving towards a very bright future.
"We want them to push themselves to the fullest of their potential and get the exposure from professional players in WFC, which they can then bring back to Singapore and promote the sport further."
Centre Yeo Xuan, 19, who was part of the WFC qualifiers team contingent, said the team had spent an average $2,500 per person to travel to New Zealand, and the Bratislava trip would cost even more.
She said: "A lot of us in the team are students, so we have to balance studying, working part-time (for some), and training - so this sponsorship will definitely help us out more."
Singapore, ranked 18th in the world, will face Slovakia (9th), Australia (12th) and Estonia (20th) in the WFC 2017.
Despite being pitted against higher-ranked opponents, assistant coach Louise Khng said the aim was a top-two finish in the group stage.
Said the former national player: "We're hoping to go on to the next round first - we'll take it game by game."
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