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Confident Tryone Smith believes he can leap into the Olympic long-jump final with a record-breaking jump in-front of more than 90,000 people at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing tomorrow night.

Smith, who celebrated his 24th birthday last week, will line up for the long jump qualifiers at 8pm, Saturday, (9am in Bermuda) with the 100m sprint final scheduled for 10pm - guaranteeing a full-house.

The U.S.-based athlete, who trains with Carl Lewis' team, admits his brash, sometimes cocky style can rub people up the wrong way.

But he reckons his 'self belief' is one of the key attributes that could help him upset some of the world's best athletes as the Olympics goes prime-time on Saturday.

"I want to get into the final first of all. After getting into the final anything is possible.

"In my event it only takes one big jump and if you get to the final you've got six.

"No-one really expects me to make it, but I think I can surprise a few people. Some people may take that as cocky but if you don't believe in yourself, who's going to?"

To make it past the first stage Smith has to either jump 8.15m or, if there are less than a dozen athletes who make that mark, be in the top 12.

After that it's a clean slate for the preliminary stages with the top nine advancing to Monday's final.

Smith knows he'll probably need to beat his personal best of 8.03 to qualify but he said Bermudian swimmer Kiera Aitken, who knocked nearly 1.5 seconds off her best time in Sunday's 100m backstroke heats, had already shown that if you raise your game, anything's possible.

"What she did was amazing. To knock that much off your time is the equivalent of adding 8 to 9 inches to your personal best in my event in a single meet - which is what I hope to do at the weekend.

"I know I can do 8.15 it's just a case of whether I can do it without fouling. I've been working on that in Houston and now in Beijing. I'm not stressing out about it. I'm a bit nervous, I'm human but I'm not stressing over the issue."

Smith said he was starting to get bored and anxious to compete, spending most of his time either training or playing arcade games in the Olympic Village.

There are perks, though. He got to see Kobe Bryant shooting hoops on an arcade basketball game next to him the other day.

That's all part of the atmosphere of the Games, something he's still trying to take in. Saturday night, in front of a full-house, he expects it will hit home.

"The 100 final is right after our event so it's sold out. I know it's going to be amazing. I'm trying to keep everything contained. I don't want to become flustered by a big crowd - It's going to be amazing. It's the biggest stage possible.

"But it doesn't matter if its 50 or 50,000 people you have a job to do. It was only six weeks ago I was competing in front of about ten people in Bermuda."

He's been working out with coach Tom Tellez on a purpose-built replica track next door to the main stadium.

"I tried to sneak into the main stadium but it didn't work out for me."

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