Many might say that rugby is in the blood of New Zealanders. Awanui Labs, the country’s leading provider of laboratory and pathology services, is seeking to find out exactly what that means when it comes to the All Blacks.
Members of the Awanui Labs team collected blood samples from the All Blacks squad ahead of the 2024 Test season in partnership with the team’s Doctor, Martin Swan and Dietician, Kat Darry.
“In keeping with our holistic approach to our players, we want to know as much as we can about their health and wellbeing, and we believe analysing blood samples is a valuable way to get a clear and consistent picture over time,” Swan said.
“By collecting data over time, we hope to optimise the players health by monitoring biomarkers related to muscle damage and recovery, as well as identifying nutritional deficiencies before they become an issue.”
Swan emphasised the programme was not a performance enhancer but did enable the medical team to help identify players who may be at increased risk of illness or injury and thereby affecting their ability to train or play most effectively.
“If we can pick things up early and intervene then that’s a good result for an athlete. That intervention could be the difference between being fit and available for selection or missing training or a game due to illness. An intervention could be something as simple as changing a player’s diet or providing a supplement to make up for a deficiency in the short term.”
Awanui’s Chief Commercial Officer, Scott Bishop shared the Awanui team are proud to be part of the solution in their preventative care.
“Awanui is proud to support the All Blacks and hope our leading testing services can play a part in setting the players up for success through the 2024 international season and beyond.
“Our goal is to partner with New Zealand’s top athletes, athletic programmes, and sporting organisations to optimise athletes’ performance, monitor their health, and prevent injuries through regular preventative screening”.
Bishop added that Awanui partners with team medical professionals to develop custom testing programmes based on the unique needs of the sport and its athletes. Regular testing intervals are established based on the needs of the organisation, with results reviewed by medical professionals to provide actionable insights for each athlete.
Benefits of this program include:
Health monitoring: Early detection of potential health issues.
Performance optimisation: Identifies nutritional deficiencies and hormone imbalances.
Injury prevention: Monitoring biomarkers related to muscle damage and recovery.
To learn more about Awanui’s elite athletics programme, contact info.commercial@awanuigroup.co.nz