Tom Toolis is looking to find his best form at the World Championships in Cairo next week after finishing his university studies.

Romford Recorder: Tom Toolis in running action at the University of Bath (pic Pentathlon GB)Tom Toolis in running action at the University of Bath (pic Pentathlon GB) (Image: Archant)

Toolis has competed on the world stage before, but after graduating from Bath University, he admitted his form in the five disciplines may have suffered in the past.

“I’m really excited about being selected for the team,” he said.

“It’s not been an easy year this year because I had to focus on my studies and finishing university, so for me training and competing was a little disrupted.

“But it was really nice to find out that I could balance it and still compete at a good standard.”

Toolis started his pentathlon career while still at Coopers Coborn School in Upminster after new teacher Mark Duncan arrived and began promoting new sporting events to pupils.

“My role in the pentathlon largely came after Mark Duncan joined the school as he really wanted to promote new events,” he added.

“He got Coopers involved in the Schools’ Biathlon as the school had a very good running and swimming base to work with. It is something the school did well in.

“Me and my friend did really well in the event the first time we did it and the girls also did the school extremely proud. After that, Pentathlon GB came to visit and promote events such as fencing to certain students. I just happened to be one who really enjoyed the day.”

Toolis returned to full time training in June and has been working on the neglected aspects of his event, saying: “After finishing at University I will definitely be doing a lot more full-time training and have already started to lot do lots of preparation for the World Championships.

“I’ve done some training in both altitude and climate as it will help me in the future. The focus on my studies affected me slightly as it did hinder my aerobic base so this is why I’ve been doing this training in order to improve my running.

“I’ve also been looking to do some work on my fencing as it was a hard event at the European standard, so it will only get tougher going forward into the world championships.”

Toolis jets off to Egypt for the final major international of the 2017 season, which runs from August 22-28, and will be very much hoping to shine on the world stage once again.