Tyrone Smith, a former All-America competitor at Missouri S&T who competed last summer at the Olympic Games in China, is getting another opportunity to perform on a big stage next week as he will participate in the World Track & Field Championships in Berlin, Germany.
Smith, the lone representative in the World Championships from his home country of Bermuda, will be one of the 46 competitors in the long jump event. The preliminary rounds in the long jump will take place at 11:10 a.m. (U.S. Central time) on Thursday, August 20, with the finals slated for 11:05 a.m. (U.S. Central time) on Saturday, August 22.
During the 2009 outdoor season, Smith’s best mark has been 26-3¾ (8.02 meters) which he posted at Rice University in June. His personal best is 26-4¼ (8.03 meters) which he set a year ago prior to the Olympics.
Smith placed 15th in the long jump last August in Beijing with a mark of 25-11½ (7.91 meters), only three centimeters shy of reaching the finals in the event. He has had four first place finishes at meets during the 2009 outdoor season, the most recent coming in mid-July at the KEZI-9 All-Comers meet in Eugene, Ore., when he jumped 26-1½.
While competing at Missouri S&T, Smith earned three All-America awards in the long jump, including national runner-up finishes in the 2006 NCAA Division II Outdoor and 2007 Indoor Championships. He won the Great Lakes Valley Conference championships in both the indoor and outdoor long jump in 2006 and again at the 2007 indoor meet where Smith also repeated as the league's indoor triple jump champion.
Smith's performance at the 2006 GLVC indoor meet earned him the league's "Athlete of the Year" award for the meet after he won the long jump, triple jump and took third in the 55-meter dash.
He is the current school record holder at Missouri S&T in both the indoor and outdoor long jump as well as part of the outdoor 4x100-meter relay.
Smith was born in Bermuda and moved to the United States at age six, spending most of his youth growing up in North Chicago, Ill.
Some of the top competitors at this year’s World Championships include Dwight Phillips from the United States, a two-time world champion whose jump of 28-8¼ is the best in the world this year and the fourth-best of all time; Panama’s Irving Saladino, who won the event at the 2007 World Championships and 2008 Olympics and has jumped 28-3¾ this year; and South Africa’s Godfrey Khotso Mokoena, who has a mark of 27-10¾ in 2009.