Reid finishes fifth in 5,000 metre final
Athlone's Wayne Reid has this week performed in highly commendable fashion at the 21st Summer Deaflympics in Taipei, Taiwan.
The 27 year-old, from Cornamagh, Athlone, finished fifth in last Sunday's 5,000m final at the Taipei City Stadium, clocking up an impressive finishing time of 15:41:45, ultimately finishing just outside the medal positions. The 5,000m was eventually won by Kenya's David Kipkogei Kiptum.
Wayne, of course, is the youngest ever athlete to represent his country at the Deaflympics having participated at Copenhagen in 1997 when he memorably returned home with a silver medal.
On Monday evening, Wayne also performed well in the Men's Marathon, finishing a respectable tenth position with a time of just over 3hr 29mins. The winner of the marathon was again a Kenyan athlete, Daniel Kiptum.
Meanwhile, Wayne's brother-in-law, Derek Jordan, was part of the Irish soccer squad which reached the quarter-finals of the Deaflympics, qualifying from a group that contained USA, England and Japan. Ireland were defeated 1-0 by France in the quarter-finals before also losing in the 5-8th place play-off to Iran (2-3). As a result, the Irish team technically finished seventh at the tournament.
Jordan, 35, is married to Wayne's sister, Frances, and plays club football in the Combined Counties League with Moate Celtic. He also works locally at Tyco Healthcare.
The Deaflympics are built on 85 years of tradition and is the second oldest multiple sporting event after the Olympics. The games officially come to a conclusion tomorrow (Thursday).
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