Last updated at 22:42, Saturday, 04 August 2012

CHRIS Thompson’s night of destiny turned into one of pain as compatriot Mo Farah won the men’s 10,000m final in the Olympic Stadium. PAUL TURNER reports from London 2012

Less than 15 minutes after Jessica Ennis won the heptathlon and with Greg Rutherford winning the long jump title for the host nation since Lyn Davies in Rome in 1964 during the opening laps, Thompson set off an his Olympic debut.

It was the greatest day in British Olympic history – with golds for the women’s team pursuit cyclists and the men’s four and women’s lightweight double skulls at Eton making it six in the space of 10 amazing hours.

But for Thompson, clearly struggling for form, it was a matter of gritting his teeth as he dropped to the back of the main pack early on and after seven laps was trailing the field by 20m, a gap that kept increasing as the race went on.

Thompson had only just come back from a lower-back injury and his face was etched with a determined grimace throughout as the Africans battled it out with Farah at the front, with a previously-undisclosed hamstring tear picked up in his last week of training clearly affecting him.

The 31-year-old passed Ukraine’s Mykola Labovskyy before halfway and just after the 4,800m mark made his way ahead of Spain’s Ayad Lamdassem, running his own race half a lap behind.

The Spaniard passed Thompson again with less than 3,000m to go, with the Kenyans at the front trying to run the legs off Farah at the front.

The Barrow runner was lapped with around 1,000m to go, with Farah leading the main field before kicking for home with a lap to go an winning from training partner Galen Rupp to claim Britain’s third athletics gold and sixth in total of the day.

Thompson came in 25th, in a time of 29.06.14 – 96 seconds behind his team-mate – and immediately went to congratulate Farah, before walking off the track a proud Olympian.

He said after the race: “I’m proud to have been part of that.

“If that race had been 12 weeks ago, I would have been in the best shape of my life and it would have taken a very different turn for me.

“But to have been part of it, to be honest I was lucky to get on the start line and I’m proud of the fact that myself and the team did an unbelievable job of getting me back out there.

“Seeing the emotion in Mo – I started with him. I finished and I hugged him and I nearly cried for the guy. It was just unbelievable.

“I want to thank Mark Rowland, he’s an unbelievable coach. I know it doesn’t seem like a great performance, but I have defied odds to run that fast even.

“The guys in the medical team, Mark and the agency, the nutritionists – Nathan Lewis and Brian Morris – I couldn’t be more proud and happy of what I have achieved.

“It doesn’t look great, but I don’t care! That’s as much as I could do off the situation I was in.”

For Twitter updates on Chris Thompson and all the other Cumbrians competing at London 2012, follow @paulturnerNWEM

See Monday’s Evening Mail for the full story and more reaction.
 

First published at 19:09, Saturday, 04 August 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk