A philosophical Chris Tomlinson admitted his best was not quite good enough after finishing fifth in the Commonwealth Games long jump final.

Tomlinson, who lives in Hampstead, had been plagued by a quad injury in the build-up to Glasgow 2014 and admitted after qualifying for last Wednesday’s final that his leg was “being held together with sticky tape”.

Despite a hugely consistent series of jumps at Hampden Park, the 32-year-old was unable to get in the leap beyond 8.10m, which would have secured a medal – and he suspected his best jump of 7.99m was all he had in him on the day.

He reflected: “The leg held together and I can’t be too disappointed as I’ve done as well as I possibly could have done under the circumstances.

“Sometimes you are jumping consistently and getting all that you can out of your tank. Today there just wasn’t enough in there.”

England team-mate Greg Rutherford took gold and, despite the much-publicised rivalry between the two, Tomlinson paid the Olympic champion a generous tribute.

He added: “The bottom line is Greg was the best jumper on the day, he deserved to win and he did - that’s all there is to it.”