PAYMENTS Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) today announced that it will progress sponsorship of an outstanding female triathlete to compete at the international IRONMAN competition in October this year.
This is in line with its strong commitment for gender equity in sports while demonstrating PayNet’s focus on inclusive marketing.
PayNet had earlier sponsored three female triathletes – Noor Zakira Zulrimi, 31; Serena Yang Chen Yin, 30; and Teoh Sue Ling, 43 – to compete in IRONMAN Malaysia 2022 and IRONMAN 7.0 Langkawi on Nov 5 last year.
Only Noor Zakira is qualified to compete in the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona, Hawaii on Oct 14 this year.
PayNet’s sponsorship will be in the form of full ‘DuitNow’ branded sports apparel kits and part funding Noor Zakira’s expenses to compete in the race in Hawaii. These are expected to enable her to fully focus on conditioning both her physical and mental state for optimal performance.
“At PayNet, we have begun our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) journey since last year. Gender equity is at the core and extends beyond our own internal DEI to cover our corporate and products branding as well as sponsorships,” commented PayNet’s senior director (commercial division) Khairuan Abdul Rahman.
“We are honoured to be given the opportunity to sponsor these amazing women. Their achievements resonate with our brand values of courage, conviction, and grit. It also speaks to levelling the playing field in sports.”
PayNet which is the nation’s retail payments infrastructure provider that operates household digital payments such as DuitNow, DuitNow QR, MyDebit and JomPAY picked triathlon because of its close association and alignment with PayNet’s own corporate values.
IRONMAN is an endurance competition that began in 1978 involving long distance running, cycling and swimming. The same courses, distances, challenges and rules apply for both male and female competitors. Women participation began in 1979 and the number of female participants have since grown.
For this year, the number of competitive female participants has reached a level to merit its own dedicated race day at the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship as well as in Hawaii. – April 4, 2023