Thompson won the
European U23 5000 m Championship in 2003. Coached by Alan Storey, Thompson ran at the 2010
Great Yorkshire Run in September and came close to victory, but was edged out by a second by Australian
Craig Mottram. He took on top African runners at the
2010 Commonwealth Games, but he could not repeat his podium performance of Barcelona; he finished in fifth place behind Ugandan winner
Moses Kipsiro and the Kenyan team, making him the top non-African performer in the event. At the start of the 2011 track season Thompson ran the third fastest 10,000 m by a Briton with his time of 27:27.36 minutes at the Payton Jordan Invitational in
Stanford,
California. He was the sole runner to challenge
Haile Gebrselassie at the
Great Manchester Run in May and finished as runner-up to the decorated Ethiopian. A heel injury interrupted his season and eventually ruled him out of competing at the
2011 World Championships in Athletics. He returned to action in October at the
Great South Run. At the 10-mile
Portsmouth race he started quickly, but faded badly in the latter stages and ended up fourth. He praised the sensible pacing of
Alistair Cragg (who overtook him for third place) and remarked "I didn't respect the course with my ambitions...I've learned a lesson about road running for the future". He ran his first
half marathon at the start of 2012, placing seventh at the
New York Half Marathon in a time of 61:23 minutes. He came fourth at the Payton Jordan 5000 m and represented the hosts in the 10,000 metres event at the
2012 London Olympics, managing only 25th place after an injury interrupted season. On the roads he came fifth at the
Great Scottish Run and was second at the
Great Birmingham Run. On 22 September 2013, Thompson was crowned 'King of Richmond' beating
Andy Vernon in the Kew Gardens 10k at the inaugural Richmond Running Festival. On 13 April 2014 Thompson came 11th in the
2014 London Marathon with a race time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 19 seconds and at the 2015 Great Birmingham run, Thompson won a closely contested race finishing the half-marathon in a time of 01:03:00 signalling that his persistent calf injury had finally healed. Thompson won the 2019 Bath half marathon, finishing with a time of 01:03:09 and finished second in the 2020 The Vitality Big Half with a time of 1:01:07 (following
Kenenisa Bekele's 1:00:22 course record time). Thompson qualified for the
marathon event at the delayed
2020 Summer Olympics, after winning the British Marathon Trials at Kew Gardens in London in March 2021 Thompson was twice
British 5000 metres champion after winning the British
AAA Championships title in 2004 and the
British Athletics Championships in 2010. Thompson announced his retirement as an elite runner in October 2024. == References ==