Christopher George Tomlinson (born 15 September 1981) is a retired English
long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...
er. He is the former British long jump record holder and competed at the
Olympics
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
of 2004, 2008 and 2012.
Career
Born in
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
, Tomlinson began competing for Middlesbrough AC (formerly Mandale Harriers) at the age of 10, mostly over 100m and 200m. He attended Nunthorpe Secondary School, where he still holds many of its year group records for triple and long jump, before attending
Prior Pursglove College in Guisborough. In his early teens Chris decided to concentrate on long jump. His major breakthrough came in 2002 when, just three months after breaking both wrists in a freak weight-training accident, he jumped 8.27 m to break the British record that had been held by
Lynn Davies
Lynn Davies CBE (born 20 May 1942) is a Welsh former track and field athlete who specialised in the long jump. He was the 1964 Olympic champion in the event. He was born in Nantymoel near Bridgend and was a member of the Cardiff Amateur Athlet ...
for 34 years. On 7 July 2007 he increased his record by a further 2 cm, jumping while competing in
Bad Langensalza
Bad Langensalza (; until 1956: Langensalza) is a spa town of 17,500 inhabitants in the Unstrut-Hainich district, Thuringia, central Germany.
Geography Location
Bad Langensalza is located in the Thuringian Basin, the fertile lowlands along t ...
in Germany.
Tomlinson competed for athletics club
Newham and Essex Beagles
Newham and Essex Beagles Athletic Club is an athletics club in southeast England.
The club competes in the British Athletics League and Southern League along with the National Junior League and Youth Development League for competitors under the ...
for some time.
He has won seven national titles in various age groups, including one for the
triple jump
The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...
indoors for under 20s in 2000.
In February 2008 he became the world's top long jumper of the year so far with a leap of 8.18m. He won the silver medal at the
2008 World Indoor Championships. He competed at the
2008 Olympic Games
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
without reaching the final. On 20 August 2009, his record was broken by 1 cm by
Greg Rutherford
Gregory James Rutherford MBE (born 17 November 1986) is a retired British track and field athlete who specialised in the long jump. He represented Great Britain at the Olympics, World and European Championships, and England at the Commonwealth ...
in the qualifying for the
World Championships
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
long jump final. Both Rutherford and Tomlinson progressed to the final.
Tomlinson regained the British record in July 2011 with a jump of 8.35 m in Paris. Rutherford equalled this distance on 3 May 2012, before surpassing it in 2014.
Tomlinson was conferred with an
Honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
by the
University of East London
, mottoeng = Knowledge and the fulfilment of vows
, established = 1898 – West Ham Technical Institute1952 – West Ham College of Technology1970 – North East London Polytechnic1989 – Polytechnic of East London ...
in 2010.
Achievements
Note: Results with a q, indicate overall position in qualifying round
Personal bests
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All information taken from IAAF profile and power of 10 profile.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomlinson, Chris
1981 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Middlesbrough
English male long jumpers
British male long jumpers
Olympic male long jumpers
Olympic athletes of Great Britain
Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Commonwealth Games competitors for England
Athletes (track and field) at the 2002 Commonwealth Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games
Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games
European Athletics Championships medalists
World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain
British Athletics Championships winners