MIDDLESBROUGH’S Chris Tomlinson admitted he was still a work in progress after failing to make the long jump final at the World Indoor Championships in Doha.

Tomlinson took his technique back to the drawing board in the New Year and headed to Qatar on the back of losing his UK indoor title to GB rival Greg Rutherford.

Things got little better for the 2008 world indoor silver medallist in the Middle East as he recorded 7.75m and missed out on a medal.

But Tomlinson, a veteran of the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2008 Beijing Games, insists he’s prepared to play the waiting game in pursuit of further international honours.

“It just wasn’t my day out there for one reason or another and it is disappointing not to make the final,” he said.

“It was very congested out there but everyone was in the same boat and for whatever reason it wasn’t to be for me.

“I’ve been working on a number of things in training but unfortunately I wasn’t able to call on them today and hopefully in the future that will change.

“I just have to keep working at what I’ve got and hoping that sooner or later it will come together for me.

“I have the European Championships to look forward to and I will keep training all the way up to them.

“It is just a question of putting the work in and having faith in what I am doing and hopefully sooner or later it will come together.”

Tomlinson produced 7.62m with his first leap and 7.75m with his third and final leap but landed a big leap with his second attempt that was then red flagged.

After also seeing rival Rutherford eliminated in the qualifiers the 28-year-old was left wondering what might have been.

“The second one was definitely my biggest jump by quite a way and if it had counted then I would easily have been in the final,” he added.

“But I’m old enough to know that if you get a red flag then it doesn’t matter how long the jump is because it doesn’t count.

“I think I was about one centimetre over the board and that has ultimately cost me.

“It is a little disheartening because I have been producing jumps like that clean in training and I just couldn’t do it when it mattered.

“Again I guess training doesn’t count when you come to a competition but it does help me believe I am going in the right direction.”

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