From spikes to sorbet for Chris Tomlinson

Former UK long jump record-holder is now occupied with ice cream cones rather than athletics but still has strong views on the sport

From the moment the sun emerges from its winter hibernation, Chris Tomlinson comes alive. Life as a professional athlete for close to two decades dictated it: the summer is when track and field careers are shaped and reputations made.

Eight years on from his athletics retirement, there has been little change to the seasonal nature of his existence, although memories of flying into a long jump pit are consigned to dreams that he admits emerge irregularly. These days, the summer months still provide the most important occupational period of the year for a man who has swapped sand and spikes for ice cream cones and wafers.

“It’s a small family-run business,” explains the former long jump British record holder of an unlikely second career in his native town of Middlesbrough. “Seven years ago, my brother-in-law pulled me in and asked if I fancied getting involved. I started then and it’s been brilliant, going from strength to strength. We manufacture ice cream cones and distribute our own Italian flavours and packaging. It’s certainly a massive shift away from athletics. No one has a clue who I am.”

Tomlinson, 42, has few opportunities – and, it must be said, little burning desire – to relive past sporting achievements in his new confectionary-based life. Not many in the waffle and sorbet world are aware of his 8.27m leap in 2002 that broke a 34-year-old British record, nor his 8.35m personal best many years later. They are not interested in his world indoor silver from 2008 or the 2010 European bronze.

For that matter, neither is he, explaining that he was unable to locate the medals when he searched the house for them recently and now has no idea where they are. Even his three young children – aged 11, 10 and eight – do not believe that he used to regularly compete in front of crowds they only associate with the Middlesbrough Football Club matches that they regularly attend.

The only question he tends to be asked is whether he won an Olympic medal, which is when a slight pang of regret kicks in. Tomlinson competed at three Olympics, finishing fifth in 2004, sixth in 2012 and exiting in qualifying in 2008. It is the home London Games that he still feels was the one that got away – the competition where he should have claimed a place on the Olympic podium, but fell just short with a best effort of…