Great Britain long jumper Chris Tomlinson has admitted that he understands why Olympic champion Greg Rutherford was chosen over him for the recent World Championships in Moscow.

Rutherford did not qualify for the final on the day, which led Tomlinson to suggest that there should have been a greater consideration to pick him for the event.

"I understand taking an Olympic champion to the Games," Tomlinson told BBC Sport. "But if the Olympic champion has a ruptured hamstring and hasn't trained for four or five weeks and has lost form and fitness, which is part of what the selection criteria is on, it was always going to be a call that would be a difficult one to make.

"He didn't jump the A standard of 8.25 and I didn't jump the A standard and if you look at the World Championship field, not many people have jumped the A standard because it is so high."

Tomlinson was initially furious at the decision to be left out.