Albuquerque, New Mexico, by winning a 5K race at the weekend.

Bermuda's top long distance runner is in in the area on a five-week training stint as he bids to make the Sydney Olympics.

Smith adjusted to the conditions and won Sunday's race in a time of 16 minutes, 13 seconds.

Smith put no real significance on the performance in this early stage of his altitude training other than it helped him to acclimatise to conditions which up until then, he had found uncomfortable. According to Lee Tucker who has been assisting Smith, the thin air left the runner feeling like he was suffering from asthma in the early days of his stay.

Consequently, Smith opted to run Sunday's State Farm sponsored Stride for Pride 10k with the locals rather than among the elite field of athletes -- but his time was nevertheless still impressive. According to Tucker, his time would have placed him 13th among the elite runners, many of whom are well known.

Sunday's event attracted a large field with 500 participating in Smith's race and 350 in the elite race which featured two Kenyan runners who are preparing for the Boston marathon. Smith has increased his training to twice a day and now it is quite evident he is becoming more familiar with the conditions.

It is understood that he is contemplating entering the Grandma's marathon in Duluth, Minnesota on June 17, in which he will bid to qualify for Sydney.

To do that, he must make the qualifying time of two hours, 20 minutes which will mean him trimming nearly 10 minutes off his best time over the distance of 2:29.45 recorded in Last Vegas in February.

Tucker said that should he fall short of his Olympic target, the training in Albuquerque will still be useful as he works towards qualifying for the Commonwealth Games.