Christopher Thompson (born 17 April 1981) is a British
long-distance runner, who won the
silver medal in the
10,000 metres
The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The ra ...
at the
2010 European Athletics Championships
The 2010 European Athletics Championships were the 20th edition of the European Athletics Championships, organised under the supervision of the European Athletic Association. They were held at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, C ...
in Barcelona, on 27 July 2010 behind his compatriot
Mo Farah
Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah (born Hussein Abdi Kahin; 23 March 1983) is a British long-distance runner. His ten global championship gold medals (four Olympic and six World titles) make him the most successful male track distance runner ever ...
. Prior to his 2010 medal win he had won the
European U23 5000 m Championship in 2003. However he was initially unable to build on this victory, as he had substantial injury problems for a number of years. He is currently coached by Alan Storey.
Thompson ran at the 2010
Great Yorkshire Run
The Great Yorkshire Run is an annual 10K run road race previously held in September in Sheffield City Centre, England, and now held in July in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. It is a part of the Great Run series of events, and as such is linked with ...
in September and came close to victory, but was edged out by a second by
Australian
Craig Mottram
Craig Mottram (born 18 June 1980) is a former Australian long and middle-distance runner who specialised in the 5000 meter event.
Early years
Mottram was born on 18 June 1980 in Frankston, Victoria. He attended Geelong Grammar School.
Car ...
. He took on top
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n runners at the
2010 Commonwealth Games
The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, ...
, but he could not repeat his podium performance of Barcelona; he finished in fifth place behind
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
n winner
Moses Kipsiro
Moses Ndiema Kipsiro (born 2 September 1986 in Singare) is a Ugandan long-distance runner who specialises in the 5000 metres. He was the bronze medallist in the event at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. He represented Uganda at the 2 ...
and the
Kenya
)
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n team, making him the top non-African performer in the event.
At the start of the 2011 track season Chris Thompson ran the third fastest 10,000 m by a Briton with his time of 27:27.36 minutes at the
Payton Jordan Invitational in
Stanford,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. He was the sole runner to challenge
Haile Gebrselassie
Haile Gebrselassie ( am, ኀይሌ ገብረ ሥላሴ, ''haylē gebre silassē''; born 18 April 1973) is an Ethiopian retired long-distance track, road running athlete, and businessman. He won two Olympic gold medals and four World Champion ...
at the
Great Manchester Run in May and finished as runner-up to the decorated
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
n. A heel injury interrupted his season and eventually ruled him out of competing at the
2011 World Championships in Athletics
The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011.
The United States topped the medal standings in th ...
. He returned to action in October at the
Great South Run
The Great South Run is an annual 10 mile (16.09 km) road running race which takes place in Portsmouth, United Kingdom providing an intermediate distance between the ten kilometre and the half marathon (21.097 km) runs. Launched in 1990 ...
. At the 10-mile
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
race he started quickly, but faded badly in the latter stages and ended up fourth. He praised the sensible pacing of
Alistair Cragg
Alistair Ian Cragg (born 13 June 1980 in Johannesburg) is an international track and field athlete.
Born and brought up in South Africa, he has since lived in England and United States where he attended the University of Arkansas. He races for ...
(who overtook him for third place) and remarked "I didn't respect the course with my ambitions...I've learned a lesson about road running for the future".
He ran his first
half marathon
A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish or shortcut ...
at the start of 2012, placing seventh at the
New York Half Marathon
The New York City Half Marathon (branded as the United Airlines NYC Half) is an annual half marathon road running race from Brooklyn's Prospect Park to Manhattan's Central Park via the Manhattan Bridge, held since 2006. It passes through o ...
in a time of 61:23 minutes. He came fourth at the Payton Jordan 5000 m and represented the hosts in the 10,000 metres event at the
2012 London Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
, managing only 25th place after an injury interrupted season. His last outing of the year was sixth at the
Great North Run
The Great North Run (branded the Simplyhealth Great North Run for sponsorship purposes) is the largest half marathon in the world, taking place annually in North East England each September. Participants run between Newcastle upon Tyne and South ...
. He was not selected for the
2013 World Championships in Athletics
The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (Moscow 2013) () was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 200 ...
the following year, although he had season's bests of 13:24.06 minutes and 27:40.81 minutes on the track. On the roads he came fifth at the
Great Scottish Run
The Great Scottish Run is a series of mass-participation road running events, held annually in the streets of Glasgow, Scotland in October. The event began as a full marathon in 1979, but later changed to a weekend of shorter events. The weekend ...
and was second at the
Great Birmingham Run
The Great Birmingham Run is an annual half marathon road running event held in Birmingham, UK in October. Formerly known as the Birmingham Half Marathon, from 2011 it became part of the Great Run series of road races.
Established in 2008, it in ...
.
On 22 September 2013, Thompson was crowned 'King of Richmond' beating
Andy Vernon
Andrew James Vernon (born 7 January 1986) is a British long-distance runner who specialised in the 5000 metres, the 10,000metres on track and cross country running. After the 2018 commonwealth games and started to concentrate on the roads wi ...
in the Kew Gardens 10k at the inaugural Richmond Running Festival.
On 13 April 2014 Thompson came 11th in the
2014 London Marathon
The 2014 London Marathon was the 34th running of the annual marathon race in London, England, which took place on Sunday, 13 April. The men's elite race was won by Kenyan Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich and the women's race was won by Kenyan Edna K ...
with a race time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 19 seconds.
At the 2015 Great Birmingham run, Thompson won a closely contested race finishing the half-marathon in a time of 01:03:00 signalling that his persistent calf injury had finally healed.
Thompson won the 2019 Bath half marathon, finishing with a time of 01:03:09.
Thompson finished second in the 2020 The Vitality Big Half
Elite post-race quotes of The Vitality Big Half 2020
/ref> with a time of 1:01:07 (following Kenenisa Bekele
Kenenisa Bekele ( om, Qananiisaa baqqalaa; am, ቀነኒሳ በቀለ; born 13 June 1982) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. He was the world record holder in both the 5000-metre and 10000-metre from 2004 (5,000m) and 2005 (10,000m) unti ...
's 1:00:22 course record time).
Thompson qualified for the marathon event at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...
, after winning the British Marathon Trials at Kew Gardens in London in March 2021
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Chris
Living people
1981 births
Sportspeople from Barrow-in-Furness
English male cross country runners
British male cross country runners
English male long-distance runners
British male long-distance runners
English male marathon runners
British male marathon runners
Olympic male long-distance runners
Olympic athletes for Great Britain
Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Commonwealth Games competitors for England
Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games
European Athletics Championships medalists
British Athletics Championships winners
Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics