Thomas Benjamin Lancashire (born 2 July 1985 in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

middle-distance runner Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 1 ...

. Lancashire represented

Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The United Kingdom was represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), and the team of selected athletes was offici ...

in the

1500 m The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

. Tom is a life member of Bolton Harriers and regularly races in club colours. Lancashire studied exercise science at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

Biography

He went to

Turton School Turton School is a mixed comprehensive secondary school and sixth form in Bromley Cross, in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England.

in Bromley Cross, Bolton. He is a talented all round sportsman having previously taken part in many sports including football, swimming, cricket, ice hockey and snowboarding. He attributes his early success to his first coach Jack Caldwell who brought him into the sport. Tom is a massive Manchester United fan.

Athletics career

He began his athletics career after being spotted running in a school cross country race and being asked to train with Bolton Harriers. In 2002 he won the

English Schools' Athletics Championships The English Schools' Athletics Championships are annual national athletics competitions organised by the English Schools' Athletic Association ESAA for students in England aged 12–18 for track and field, cross country and race walking. The eve ...

1500 metres title, being beaten by

Lee Emanuel Lee Emanuel (born 24 January 1985) is an English middle-distance runner. He represented Great Britain at the 2014 and 2016 World Indoor Championships. In addition he won a silver medal at the 2015 European Indoor Championships. Lee attended t ...

in his heat before beating him in the final. In 2003, he represented Great Britain at the European Junior Championships, in the 1500 metres. The event was a straight final and he won a silver medal, finishing just over half a second behind the winner. He retained his

1500 metres title that year, winning his heat on his way to recording 3:47.78 in the final and winning the final by almost four seconds. He also won the AAA British Junior 1500 metres title by over 6 seconds. In 2004, he competed at the World Junior Championships, running in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

. He set a personal best of 3:42.48 in his heat, finishing third in the final automatic qualification spot. In the final he finished sixth, running a slower time than in his heat. He retained his British Junior title, winning by over eight seconds. He also moved to America that year to study at

, which he left in 2007. In 2005, he again represented Great Britain, this time at the European U23 Championships in the

. He came fourth in the first heat, qualifying automatically for the final. In the final he finished last, by over 15 seconds. In 2007, he competed in the

European Cross Country Championships The European Cross Country Championships is an annual international cross country running competition. Organised by the European Athletic Association, it is the area championships for the region and is held in December each year. The championships ...

in the U23 age group, finishing nineteenth. In 2008, he competed at the

Bislett Games The Bislett Games is an annual track and field meeting at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League. History The first international athletics meeting at Bislet ...

as part of the

IAAF Golden League The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of outdoor track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Athletes who won specific events at all of the series meetings were awarded a jackpot prize, ...

, winning the 1500 metres. He 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 ...

later that year in the

. He did not make it out of his heats, finishing 2 seconds behind the winner of the heat and eventual champion

Asbel Kiprop Asbel Kipruto Kiprop (born 30 June 1989) is a Kenyan middle-distance runner, who specialises in the 1500 metres. He was awarded the 1500 m gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics after the original winner, Rashid Ramzi, tested positive for ...

. In 2009, he competed at 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, ...

over

. He finished eighth in his heat, three places outside the automatic qualification places. In 2010, he competed in the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

over

for England. He came fourth in his heat, qualifying easily before the final. He finished eighth in the final. He also competed at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

that year in the

. He came third in his heat, qualifying for the final. He came tenth out of twelve in the final. In 2012, he competed at the

, he competed in the

, finishing tenth in his heat and failing to qualify for the final. In 2014, after almost two years out of the sport through injury and illness, he finished fourth in the 5000 metres at the British Championships as he looked to step up to that distance in the future. In 2015, he competed at the British Indoor Championships, coming third in the 3000 metres. This meant that he qualified for the European Indoor Championships over

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

. He ran in the second heat, finishing eleventh and failing to qualify for the final. He also competed at the British Athletics Championships in the 1500 metres, making it through the heats to come sixth in a time of 3:51.78. Also that year he competed over the short course in the

Great Edinburgh International Cross Country The Great Edinburgh International Cross Country was an annual cross country running competition that took place every January in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was one of the competitions in the Great Run series of athletics events and was held alongsi ...

, being the first Briton to finish, and finishing fifth overall. In 2016, he began his outdoor season at an

IAAF World Challenge The IAAF World Challenge was an annual, global circuit of one-day track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). First held in 2010, it replaced the IAAF Grand Prix and IAAF Super Grand Prix ...

meeting, the

Golden Spike The golden spike (also known as The Last Spike) is the ceremonial 17.6-karat gold final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific Railroad ...

in Ostrava over the 1500 metres. He ran 3:39.95 to come ninth. He also competed at the

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, over 1500 metres. He ran 3:37.77 to come tenth. At the end of the year Lancashire made an agreement to be trained by

Steve Cram Stephen Cram, (born 14 October 1960) is a British retired track and field athlete. Along with fellow Britons Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett, he was one of the world's dominant middle distance runners during the 1980s. Nicknamed "The Jarrow Arr ...

after splitting from his previous coach Steve Vernon.

Personal bests

* Outdoor **

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

— 1:45.76 (13 May 2006) **

— 3:33.96 (27 August 2010) ** One mile — 3:53.39 (14 August 2010) **

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

— 13:34.44 (29 April 2009) * Indoor **

Mile run The mile run (1,760 yards or exactly 1,609.344 metres) is a middle-distance foot race. The history of the mile run event began in England, where it was used as a distance for gambling races. It survived track and field's switch to ...

— 3:58.52 (2 March 2006) **

— 8:00.95 (3 February 2007)

References

External links

* *
College boy Tom Lancashire moves up in class
from ''The Times'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lancashire, Thomas 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Bolton English male middle-distance runners British male middle-distance runners Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games competitors for England Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain British Athletics Championships winners Florida State Seminoles men's track and field athletes