made the qualifying standard with his last attempt.

The 24-year-old leapt 56 feet, three-and-a-half inches (17.16 metres) to place sixth in the qualifying round on Saturday at the Estadi Olimpic.

He is one of only eight automatic qualifiers, while the four best non-qualifiers were added to the final round to make up a minimum number of 12 competitors. The qualifying distance was 55-91 (17 metres).

But Wellman, the two-time defending NCAA champion out of the University of Arkansas and world number six, almost never made it as Germany's Ralf Jaros had earlier jumped 55-5. As it turned out, Jaros was 13th and will have to wait until the 1996 Atlanta Games to stake his claim.

Wellman, who had approach problems all night and was somewhat affected by the changing winds, jumped 53-41 and 54-9 in his previous attempts.

Then, he broke from technique to make certain that he could live to fight another day.

"Things didn't go like I wanted them to, in the aspect that I was to have jumped the qualifying mark in my first jump,'' said Wellman. "But due to circumstances such as approaches and trying to get run-throughs with 23 guys was kind of hectic (there were 47 in two groups).

"I had my step on my first jump but the wind out there was not co-operating.

It was swirling, you would get a 3.0 headwind one moment and then a 2.0 tailwind the next. The wind would change on you and you had to change your approach every time.

"So you had to sit there and wait for the wind and I didn't do that on my first attempt and I was way, way behind the board. It was so far back it was crazy.'' Wellman improved with his second jump but he was still a foot or so behind the board at take-off. "I was jumping decent but my approach wasn't there,'' he added. `On my third jump when I got to the board I thought I was over. I looked at the board; I actually turned my head down and looked, which isn't technically the best thing to do because it puts you in a bad position to begin with.'' The jump was legal, though not for a new Bermuda record because he was assisted by a 3.6 mph tailwind.

Wellman joins the other automatic qualifiers that includes his Arkansas mentor Mike Conley (56-61 ) and Charlie Simpkins (55-111 ) of the US and Leonid Voloshin (56-51 ) of the Unified Team. They have all been prominent on the European circuit since Wellman came across from college.

The other qualifiers are Pierre Camara of France (56-103 4), Frank Rutherford of the Bahamas (56-81 ), Yoelvis Quesada Fernandez of Cuba (56-51 ), Sixin Zou of China (56-0), Maris Bruziks of Latvia (55-7), Aleksandr Kovalenko of the Unified Team (55-61 ), Eugeniusz Bedeniczuk of Poland (55-6) and Vasily Sokov of the Unified Team (55-53 ).

"Hopefully, in the final I can get my approach down correctly and look to jump a whole lot further,'' added Wellman, who will carry little sentiment when he jumps against Conley for sport's greatest prizes -- Olympic gold.

And if he does have success against the vastly experienced 30-year-old American, Wellman will break a sequence of devilish implications -- sixth place in the 1991 world championships, ranked sixth in the world for 1992, and sixth in the Olympic qualifiers.

"The three sixes, I'll break that habit,'' he said with a laugh. "It's not a bad position to be in, but I will like to move up about three or four spots.

"I want to jump far enough so that I will be happy, and if I do that I could be in the medals.'' And that could mean having to beat coach Conley. "There is no sentiment about jumping against him. When you walk on the track it's business. He has a house, he owns a house, he owns several homes, he owns a car. He has got assets. I don't have any. I've got mine to get, that's the way I look at it.'' BRIAN WELLMAN -- Made tonight's triple jump final.