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| Human Interest | |
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Sport Specific Information | |
| Club / Team | South Essex Gymnastics Club: Basildon, ENG |
General Interest | |
| Hero / Idol | British artistic gymnast Louis Smith, Japanese artistic gymnast Kohei Uchimura, Russian artistic gymnast Alexei Nemov. (wingold.everyoneactive.com, 07 Jun 2012; thisisfirstaid4sport.co.uk, 30 Jun 2011; reissbeckford.co.uk, 20 Jun 2010) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| When and where did you begin this sport? | He began practising artistic gymnastics at age six. |
Further Personal Information | |
| Occupation | Coach |
| Languages | English |
General Interest | |
| Other information | COACHING In January 2018 he was appointed as assistant head coach of women's artistic gymnastics at the South Essex Gymnastics Club in Basildon, England. He also works as a personal coach at W10 Training Gym and runs an online gymnastics and fitness programme called Reiss Beckford Training. "I'm really keen on offering individual training to elite gymnasts as my knowledge and experience could hugely benefit this level of gymnast that I otherwise wouldn't be able to coach as they are not on my doorstep." (Reiss Beckford Training Facebook page, 19 Sep 2021; Instagram profile, 17 Sep 2021; get.fitr.training, 30 Jun 2021; southessexgym.co.uk, 08 Jan 2018) REPRESENTING JAMAICA Having represented England and Great Britain earlier in his career, in 2015 he decided to begin competing for Jamaica in the hope of boosting his chances of qualifying for major international competitions. He was eligible to make the switch through his Jamaican grandparents. "Competing for Jamaica is an amazing opportunity for me to compete with the best in the world and help make my dream of competing in an Olympic Games a reality." (jamaicaobserver.com, 23 Apr 2015; echo-news.co.uk, 08 Jan 2015; jamaicaolympics.com, 01 Jan 2015) |
| Injuries | Earlier in his career he suffered hairline fractures to both his elbows. The injuries were a result of overloading his body with the stresses of the sport as he was still growing. (thisisfirstaid4sport.co.uk, 30 Jun 2011) |
Sport Specific Information | |
| Why this sport? | He attended an artistic gymnastics taster day at a school physical education class. He enjoyed it so much he joined his local artistic gymnastics club. |
General Interest | |
| Awards and honours | He was named the 2010 BBC East Young Sports Personality of the Year in England. (reissbeckford.co.uk, 04 Feb 2016) He was named Best Male Newcomer in Delhi by Commonwealth Games England in recognition of his performance at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. (kukrisports.co.uk, 25 Feb 2014) |
| Sporting philosophy / motto | "To succeed you need dedication, hard work and focus." (wingold.everyoneactive.com, 07 Jun 2012) |
| Hobbies | Photography, videography. (Instagram profile, 04 Sep 2017) |
| Memorable sporting achievement | Winning silver medals in the team all-around, individual all-around and floor events at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. (turn-gymnastics.com, 02 Mar 2018) |
| Milestones | In 2018 he became the first artistic gymnast to represent Jamaica at the Commonwealth Games. (gymnasticsville.com, 21 Aug 2019; SportsDeskOnline, 21 Sep 2019) |