Randika Cooray wins triple Gold at World Dwarf Games
Wednesday, 2 October 2013 00:00
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Alliance Finance supports Sri Lanka’s ‘Little Champion’
Alliance Finance PLC sponsored Sri Lankan-born athlete Randika Cooray at the recently concluded World Dwarf Games in Michigan, USA. Bringing great honour to Sri Lanka, Randika secured three Gold medals in events she competed in beating strong opposition. Significantly, this athlete is the first Sri Lankan to secure Gold for the country at a world sporting event of this nature.
Randika secured her wins for badminton (singles) open women class L1, Boccia (singles) open class U2 and in Soccer in the open women’s category where she played on the British team.
Speaking of her experience Randika, who is a past pupil of Holy Family Convent- Bambalapitiya and a resident in the UK, thanked Alliance Finance for the company’s unstinted support of her journey, which has secured Sri Lanka a place on the global stage.
“I am deeply thankful to Alliance Finance of Sri Lanka for having sponsored my travel to the games without them I wouldn’t have been able to attend the games and win 2 Gold medals for Sri Lanka. It enabled me to overcome adversity and prove to myself and my country that being restricted in growth doesn’t mean you can’t achieve your dream. Thank you Alliance Finance for supporting me to make, once called an impossible dream, come true,” she said.
Significantly, Randika secured her gold in badminton beating the previous world champion in the final, as well as in boccia, where she beat the key player of the Australian gold winning boccia team. In winning three gold medals, Randika has become the first Sri Lankan athlete to win gold in any World Dwarf Games, Paralympics or Olympics to date.
“Randika is indeed a true inspiration, not only to those with physical limitations, but also to athletes across the country. We are indeed proud of her achievement and are fortunate that we were in a position to assist her to realise her ambitions. Her commitment and determination has brought great honour to the country,” said Alliance Finance Deputy Chairman and MD Romani De Silva.
The 2013 World Dwarf Games, held in the US this year, is the largest sporting event in history exclusively for athletes with dwarfism, at which a total of 395 athletes from 17 countries competed for honours.
In keeping with the company’s triple bottom line ethos of ‘people, planet, profit’, Alliance Finance continues to provide empowerment to marginalised sections of Sri Lankan society, nurturing new talent and actively promoting economic growth and nation building as part of its integrated business philosophy.
Among its many community service projects, Alliance Finance finances and supervises many landmark programs, of which the provision of the three-wheelers converted to run on LP gas is noteworthy as it provides underprivileged members of society with a means of livelihood, whilst protecting the environment for future generations. Alliance Finance was a pioneer in three wheeler financing three decades ago by providing credit to a segment of society that had no access to credit.