REID BEATEN IN 200m AFTER EALIER 100m WIN AS MAGEEAN SECURES 800m VICTORY IN BELFAST INTERNATIONAL

Richard BoadiMay 29, 2022

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Athletics Ireland indicated earlier this month that Reid would be able to continue his international career while he is also hoping to compete for Northern Ireland at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham

Reid was racing on Irish soil for the first time since being cleared to continue his international career.

In February, the Olympian was found guilty of allowing his flat in Bristol to be used to produce crack cocaine and received a suspended sentence.

Reid won the 100m in 10.62 seconds but could only clock 21.25 in the 200m.

That left him 0.20 seconds behind his Irish Tokyo Olympics team-mate Marcus Lawler, with Englishman Jordan Watson-Brown also 0.05 ahead of Reid as he produced a personal best.

Earlier, Reid had held off Watson-Brown by 0.07 to win the 100m which had a wind reading of -1.1.

Reid’s 200m time was 0.98 seconds outside his personal best set in 2018, which was the year he won Commonwealth Games bronze medal in Australia and also reached the 200m final at the European Championships.

‘A terrible situation to be put into’

Despite losing in his specialist 200m, Reid, 27, insisted he wasn’t downhearted by his afternoon.

“It wasn’t my best performance but I was literally walking on one leg yesterday with my Achilles so to finish today is really good,” he told BBC Sport Northern Ireland.

Reid’s said the court case caused him to miss three months of training over the winter and spring which he is now attempting to catch up on.

The Irish sprinter was given a suspended sentence and 220 hours unpaid work at Bristol Crown Court in February but was found not guilty of concealing criminal property and of three firearms offences, which related to items seized from his flat.

During a war-weather training stint in South Africa in early 2020, Reid had sub-let the property to fellow athlete, Romaine Hyman, who was found guilty of 18 offences and sentenced to 26 years in prison at the court hearing, with two other men given jail terms.

“The three months that I missed and those are the important three months. I’m trying to chase back all that time that I’ve missed so I’m slowly working away at it,” added Reid.

“I just want to get fit really. I want to start enjoying my running again.

“It was a terrible situation I was put in and then to miss all the training, have all of that, lose sponsors.

“I just held on to funding…..it plays a lot with your mind a lot so it’s good to get out here to race and put all that behind me really,” added Reid, who will race in Greece on Thursday before competing in London next weekend.