CHRIS Thompson will aim to bookhis place at the World Championships as he tackles the London Marathon tomorrow.

The Barrow-born distance runner is looking to lay the groundwork for a happy homecoming after years of injury gell.

Thompson, a silver medallist in the 10,000m at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona – when he was beaten to the line only by Mo Farah – has spent the past three years battling back from an Achilles operation.

His bid for glory at the London Olympics in 2012 was hit by a broken back, though he battled through the pain to finish the 10,000m final as Farah again took gold.

Thompson made his London Marathon debut in 2014, when he ran a time of 2:11:19 – which remains his personal best. That was followed by major surgery on his left Achilles that autumn, which has impacted his career since.

He tackled the roads of the capital again last year, but was not at his best as he finished 16th in 2:15:05, missing out on a place in Rio as Callum and Derek Hawkins and Tsegai Tewelde finished ahead of him to make up the GB team.

His most recent outing came in the Reading Half-Marathon last month, where he finished second despite jogging much of the closing stages with a sore right Achilles. He won the Trafford 10k in Manchester just prior to that.

The 35-year-old is now looking for success this weekend to land a place in the Great Britain squad for the World Championships in London in August – needing a time of at least 2:16 to be eligible for the team, as well as a finish in the top-two Brits to be guaranteed a spot, though the injury has hampered his preparations somewhat.

“I’ve got something ready to go,” he said. “I feel like I’m beginning to put the operation behind me now – it has been a long process because of the whole restructuring biomechanically.

“This year started really, really well. I picked up the niggling injury in Reading, which has made the last five weeks challenging, but for me the whole of the last three years has been about getting back and staying there.

“As much as I want to make the team this summer and be there, I want this year as a whole to be as good as it can be.

“The last five weeks have been challenging. It has been sore, it has been emotionally up and down in a lot of ways, but the big picture is that there is a big performance in me now – I just have to find a way to bring it out, which is what I’m excited about.

“I feel like, if need be, give me six weeks and I could run a PB at 10k, that’s how good I feel in myself.

“But I don’t know how the last five weeks are going to affect Sunday. It my not at all, it may only a little bit. My main aim now is to make the team.”