Tyrone Smith is determined not to waste any jumps in his ambitious chase for a medal in tomorrow’s long jump final at the World Championships in Beijing.

The 31-year-old leapt 8.03 metres in this morning’s qualifiers at the awe-inspiring Bird’s Nest Stadium on his third attempt, after earlier jumps of 7.72 and 8.01.

He said he was focused on performing to his optimum level in the final, where he will compete against the world’s elite jumpers.

Jeff Henderson, of the United States, was the top qualifier at 8.36, followed by Greg Rutherford of Great Britain with 8.25 and United States’ Mike Hartfield in third with a leap of 8.13.

“I’m really excited and looking to having fun,” Smith said. “I have to give myself six opportunities to chase a medal and can’t waste any jumps. Once you get into the final round anything can happen and everyone in the final has jumped far in their career.

“I’m feeling good, I’m feeling confident and the body is feeling a lot better after the qualifiers in Toronto [at the Pan Am Games] and that makes me feel good. I’m ready to go.”

Smith said he was reasonably happy with his showing in the qualifiers and stressed that safely navigating the opening round had been his only concern.

“I had a feeling I wouldn’t have a huge jump in the first round and just be done with it,” Smith said.

“I always have this huge expectation that I will be done after one jump. When you don’t you can start to get disappointed.

“I thought it would take three jumps and I was OK with that.”

Smith is enjoying one of his best campaigns and hopes to build upon his consistent showing at last month’s Pan Am Games, where he leaped beyond eight metres four times, finishing fourth with a jump of 8.07 metres.

Having finished a disappointing thirteenth at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, where he failed to reach the final, Smith decided against competing at this month’s NACAC Senior Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica, so not to jeopardise his preparations.

Also in action tomorrow in Beijing is Tre Houston who will compete in the 200 metres heats this morning.

The 25-year-old missed out on the 200 semi-finals at the Pan Am Games, finishing fourth in his heat in a time of 21sec.

Unlike Smith, Houston travelled to San Jose for the NACAC Senior Championships, where he placed sixth in his semi-final heat in 21.72.

Like Smith, Houston, whose personal best stands at 20.42, has also already hit the qualifying mark for the Rio Games.

Rutherford is looking to become only the fifth British athlete to hold world, Olympic, European and Commonwealth titles simultaneously.

China, the host nation, meanwhile, have three athletes competing in the final.

Wang Jianan, who goes by the English name Eddie, led the trio in the preliminaries with a jump of 8.12 to advance in fourth place. Gao Xinglong and Li Jinzhe secured the fifth and sixth spots.

China have hired Randy Huntingdon, the experienced United States coach, to train its long jump team with the goal of earning medals at these world championships on home soil and at next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The championships run until Sunday.