Chris Thompson was the sentimental favourite for the British Olympic marathon trials but few people genuinely expected him to enjoy his finest moment aged 39 in Kew Gardens on Friday

The coronavirus pandemic threw most athletes’ lives into limbo and Chris Thompson has been no exception. In July last year I randomly bumped into him running around my local track in the south-west corner of England. He was not totally sure when his next race would be, so he was merely ticking over in training. The Tokyo Olympics had been postponed and, approaching his 40^th birthday, he knew time was not on his side.

Ticking over for a talented runner like “Thommo”, as he is known, included a four-mile tempo run with each lap in about 70 seconds. He looked effortless but told me he had begun “blowing a bit in the last few laps”. When I mentioned to him the track record for 5000m was about 14:49, he smiled: “I might have just broken that in a training run.”

Thommo’s visit to the area wasn’t quite so random. His wife, Jemma Simpson, grew up in the small Cornish village of Polgooth and during a visit to see her family Thommo “ticked over” by stretching his legs on the Pentewan Valley Trail and, on this particular day, at the nearby Par Track.

Jemma, of course, is a former UK 800m champion with a best of 1:58.74 and she competed at the 2008 Olympics. They have been together for years and you will struggle to find a nicer couple in the sport. My story of Thommo’s tempo run at Par Track typifies this too.

Shortly after he finished he was approached by a couple of young runners who recognised him and wanted to chat and maybe pick up some advice. The wind was a little chilly and he hadn’t warmed down, but Thommo happily stood chatting to the athletes and then myself for close to an hour.

Some athletes might have signed a quick autograph and darted off. But not Thommo. Passing on a few tips to the young runners seemed more important to him than doing a warm down jog.

None of this came as a surprise to me. I’ve had the pleasure of watching Thommo run – and doing the odd post-race chat – since the late 1990s. He has always been a joy to interview, but in addition to his affable personality he possesses a raw talent for running that few Brits in recent years can match.

Let’s not forget this is an athlete who out-kicked Mo Farah to win the European under-23 5000m title in Bydgoszcz in 2003. Seven years later he finished runner-up to Farah at the European Championships 10,000m in Barcelona, whereas his PBs include 13:11.51 for 5000m and 27:27.36 for 10,000m despite a career that has been interrupted by, at times, career-threatening injury.

Yet victory in the British Olympic marathon trials on March 26, 2021, will surely go down as his finest moment. It was an inspired performance where he fought back from the jaws of defeat to win in a PB of 2:10:52. Amazingly, he turns 40 on April 17 as well.

READ MORE: It’s child’s play as Chris Thompson wins British Olympic Marathon Trials 

Using every ounce of his considerable experience, he deliberately backed off the early pace when he sensed it was too fast. Everyone, including myself, simply thought he was dropped. This was Thommo’s last dance and he seemed to be going out the back door and en route to a probable DNF.

Instead, he was playing an athletics equivalent of rope-a-dope with his rivals because, when the race began to reach the business end, he had re-joined the leaders and was a man with momentum on his side.

If marathon tactics are like a game of chess, Thommo had basically studied his position shortly after the opening. He took stock and devised his strategy for the rest of the game. Then he prepared to execute it.

This was his seventh marathon and he nailed it to perfection. This is a good point to give his coach some credit, too. There are few more knowledgeable distance running experts than Alan Storey and he masterminded Thommo’s build-up with skill and precision to culminate in this particular moment.

When Thommo’s victory was assured, he charged down the finishing straight at Kew Gardens in joyous, triumphant fashion. Our AW video of him breaking the finish-line tape has gone viral and his name was trending on Twitter.

Chris Thompson celebrates winning the Olympic Marathon Trial at Kew pic.twitter.com/p3L3zIuPd8

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) March 26, 2021

Everybody loves an underdog story and here was a 39-year-old veteran runner who bounced back from being dropped early in the race. At various points he was so far behind the leaders, he was not even in the camera shot. Then there is his likeable personality that everybody warms to.

Yet there is even more to this fairytale story.

In the small hours of Monday morning Jemma gave birth to the couple’s first child, a boy called Theo. Not surprisingly this played havoc with his emotions during race week, not to mention his sleep patterns, yet he still managed to produce the run of his life.

Amusingly, I had dropped Thommo a message at almost the same time his baby was being born to ask if he was doing any interviews before the trials or “flying in under the radar”. Always the gentleman, he replied apologetically asking if I could possibly keep the news under my hat until he had got the race out of the way.

He didn’t want any pre-race fuss or hype. He just wanted to get his head together and focus on delivering. Sometimes, as a journalist, you really want to break a story but this was one of those occasions where I was happy to keep it to myself and let himself and Jemma break the news in their own style.

He did on Sunday, too, in the most dramatic of circumstances after a memorable and heart-warming victory in the British Olympic marathon trials.