A miss is as good as a mile.

The thought might have crossed Tyrone Smith's mind as he trudged back to the changing room at Beijing's National Stadium on Saturday evening.

On a night when many of the world's top long jumpers were left dejected and distraught after failing to advance from the Olympic qualifying round, Smith will have realised he had missed a golden opportunity.

He failed by a mere three centimetres to secure a spot in tonight's final, finishing a very respectable 15th out of 41 entries, knowing that only the top 12 would compete for a place on the podium. His best and final jump of 7.91 metres was well below the national record of 8.03 metres he set in Greece earlier this year.

The door was left wide open with so many jumpers inexplicably failing to produce anywhere near their personal best, and as coach Thomas Tellez said aftewards, had the Bermudian been offered just one more attempt he would have easily qualified.

After a far too cautious first effort of 6.95 metres, Smith progressively got better.

His second jump was measured at 7.63 metres and his final leap, when he hit the board spot-on with barely a centimetre to spare, was the best of all ¿ 7.91 metres.

And with only three competitors making the automatic final qualifiying distance of 8.15 metres, that last jump leafrogged him into the leading dozen.

But as it turned out, four of those jumping behind Smith in two groups also saved their best for last.

And the 24-year-old Bermudian's hopes quickly evaporated.

It will have served as small consolation that many of the event's more favoured competitors also quickly realised that their Olympic campaign was over.

Meanwhile, Bermuda's other Olympic long jumper Arantxa King remains confident she can advance to the women's final when she takes part in the qualifying round at the National Stadium on Tuesday morning.

Coming off a fifth-place finish at the recent World Junior Championships in Poland, King said yesterday her preparations since then had been going well.

"I feel good, I feel very relaxed," she said. "I'm looking for a personal best."

Her existing PB of 6.39 metres was set three years ago and the Stanford University student believes she's in good enough form to leap further.

"Obviously I want to get into the final, but the pressure's on everyone," said the 18-year-old.

"There's a lot of tension in the Olympics."

Next on Bermuda's Games schedule was the women's triathlon featuring Flora Duffy. That was due to start at 11 p.m. Bermuda time last night, finishing in the early hours of today.