CHRIS Tomlinson intends to compete for at least one more Olympic cycle before even beginning to contemplate retiring from athletics.

Tomlinson rounded off his season in style as he beat Olympic champion Greg Rutherford to claim the Great North City Games long jump competition on Saturday with a winning effort of 8.18m.

The 31-year-old Teessider finished sixth in the Olympic final in London, and will be approaching veteran status by the time the next Games arrive in Rio de Janeiro in four years time.

However, he is determined to remain in training and need only look to his training partner in London for inspiration as he attempts to extend his senior career into a second decade.

“I train with a girl, Yamile Aldama, who has just had her 40th birthday and this year she won the world indoor title and was fifth in the Olympics, and should have stepped on to the rostrum,” said Tomlinson. “I'm looking forwards.

“There's the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow to aim towards, and then you've obviously got Rio in 2016 which should be a pretty decent Olympics. Then the World Championships are in 2017 and by that point I'll be 35.

“I think Jonathan (Edwards) was 34 or 35 when he won at the Olympics in Sydney, so if I want to keep going for a few years, why not?

“In the past, I think a lot of people dropped out because the sport wasn't as professional. You used to get to a certain age with a wife and children, and you had to do something to support them financially. Now, the opportunity to provide that support is there in athletics.”

Tomlinson finished 29cm clear of Rutherford on the Newcastle Quayside, and the Middlesbrough-born jumper continues to view last month's Olympic final as an opportunity missed.

He led the competition at the end of the first round, but was unable to improve on his opening leap with his other five jumps.

“It's a case of what could have been,” he said. “There were 40 athletes went to the Olympic Games and one athlete (Rutherford) jumped well. Maybe Will Claye jumped satisfactorily, but all the other athletes were pretty average.

“I jumped 8.07m and the big jump never came, and there were a lot of people who were in the same boat. I think it's been a very poor year in long jump, mainly because so many people have been injured. Eighty per cent of my training over the last two years has been affected by injury.”

Tomlinson was sidelined for the whole of last winter because of a knee operation, and while other athletes are looking forward to an extended break, he cannot wait to get back into some serious training.

“I haven't really trained in the winter for two years, so I'm actually quite looking forward to it,” he said. “It's been so long since I did an indoor season that I'm only going to take a couple of weeks off and then I'll be straight back into it. I need to do that to try to improve.”