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

*All information taken from IAAF profile and power of 10 profile.

References

External links

* * * * * * * * * * * {{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