No disrespect to national track and field coach Gerry Swan, but there's good reason why Bermuda long jumper Tyrone Smith wanted to bring his own coach to these Games.

The name Thomas Tellez is one that most people won't recognise, although for avid followers of athletics, it will ring a bell.

For 20 years, Tellez was the man behind the amazing success story of American legend Carl Lewis.

He coached the sprint and long jump icon when he was breaking world records and hauling in an amazing nine Olympic gold medals and one silver at four successive Games.

He guided the brash young American when he won four Olympic golds at the Los Angeles Games, a feat previously matched only by the great Jesse Owens. And his resume will show he also coached Leroy Burrell when he broke the 100 metres world record.

Now 75, he's come out of retirement to work with Lewis again . . . this time to coach a small group of athletes, Smith included, who they believe might be the stars of the future.

Tellez teamed up with Smith last October at Houston University and he thinks the Bermudian, who has lived almost all of his life in the US, has got what it takes to go right to the top.

He considers his latest student a genuine prospect . . . not perhaps making his mark at these Games, but someone who has the talent, the determination and the commitment to one day be rated among the world's best.

Tellez has yet to find another Lewis, but in Smith he believes he's discovered an athlete with a very promising future.

As for the 23-year-old's chances of success in Beijing when he steps out against 42 other long jumpers in the first round on Saturday night, Tellez says his latest find is good enough to make the final.

"I have confidence that he's capable of making the final," said the veteran coach.

"I think if he can make the final, that would be a very good goal for him. I think in another year, we can expect more from him but I've only been working with him since October. He's made a lot of progress since then, and he's made a lot of progress in just the last month.

"Based on what he's done in the past year, he's a much better jumper right now. I think he's physically capable of making it (the final), but then there's the pressure of being here at the Olympics for the first time . . . I don't know how he's going to react to that.

"Physically he's ready, technically he's ready, but it's just a matter of whether he can put it all together under pressure."

Earlier this year in Greece, Smith set a new Bermuda record of 8.03 metres, missing out on automatic Olympic qualifying by just two centimetres. Final or not, Tellez says he's certainly in the kind of form which would enable him to break that record.

And he says he's relying on Smith not to be intimidated by the quality of the opposition.

"Intimidated? . . . I hope not. The way I coach him, the way I coach everyone is always rely on what you practise, you only concentrate on what you practise and what you should be doing and not on the competition. You can't control what the competition does, all you can do is control what you do.

"You take the adrenalin and you execute. If he can execute with the adrenalin that's pumping in his body, and execute like he does in practise, he'll do well."

In the weeks leading up to these Games, Smith had hoped to compete in Europe and finalise his preparation at a series of meets.

But Tellez says it was his decision not to cross the Atlantic.

"I told him, it's better to stay here (in Houston) and train.

I said 'you know how to compete, the problem is executing and we need to do some more work'.

"We hadn't exactly figured out what the problems were, why he was so inconsistent. I told him he would be better staying in the US. Right now, I think we've solved all those problems.

"He's ready to go. In the last month he's really come on. Everything we've worked on has improved. He's not so inconsistent.

"Consistency brings out better performances. My whole idea of coaching him this year was to get him ready for the future . . . he's a good jumper, he's got the talent, he needs to work on his sprinting ability, and how to sprint and how to relax.

"But, really, he'll be better early next year. He'll have more strength and speed.

"We have all the parts working, now we can go back and work on each individual part."