Tyrone Smith, Bermuda’s Olympic long jumper, opened his 2014 track and field season with a third-place finish at the 56th Mt SAC Relays in California.

Competing at the Hilmer Lodge Stadium in a competition that is dubbed “Where the world’s best athletes compete”, Smith outduelled his rivals on his way to securing a podium finish. His leap of 7.77 metres was the only of his three jumps that was legal, but good enough to grab bronze.

He passed on his final two jumps after entering the competition with a strained hamstring he picked up last week, deciding only to compete after consultation with his coaching staff.

The long jump gold went to Jeffrey Henderson who jumped 8.12 metres, while a leap of 7.70m was good enough to get Rikiya, of Japan, the silver.

Pleased with how he performed under the conditions, Smith thanked the organisers for yet another outstanding event.

“I took four jumps, fouled three and marked a pretty good opener at only 80 percent,” Smith said via Twitter. “I would like to thank everyone at the relays for a quality meet and the hospitality.”

Competing with niggling injuries isn’t anything new to the Bermudian, having competed for the better part of 2013 with multiple injuries.

He did, however, have an encouraging season and this year’s start continues where he left off from a year ago that included a third in a grand-prix meet in Tokyo and then in Austria before placing fourth in the Diamond League meet in Sweden.

Last September, he won gold at the Amsterdam Flame Games in the Netherlands.