RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – “It was just a bad day at the office,” said Jamaica’s long jumper Aubrey Smith after finishing seventh at Jamaica’s Senior Championship with 7.40m, but was surprisingly selected on the Olympic team.

Damar Forbes won with 8.16m and Smith finished behind Jerome Wilson (7.61), Shawn-D Thompson (7.56), Aubrey Allen (7.53), Alrick Ottey (7.42) and Jordon Scott (7.40).

With the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) coming under fire for their non-selection of discus thrower Jason Morgan, who finished fourth at the Championship, but had the Olympic Qualifying standard, Smith’s selection was met with resistance in some quarters.

Smith, who achieved his personal best three times before Jamaica’s Championships with jumps of 7.94m, 8.02m and finally 8.16m on June 25, failed to replicate that form in front of the Jamaican crowd.

“I don’t have anything against those persons. It was just a bad day at the office. For the seventh place, that’s not Aubrey Smith. I don’t look at that, I just put that one behind,” Smith told the

Jamaica Observer.

“I may have come seventh, but I was the second person with the standard. So for all those persons wondering, I came second with the standard,” he reiterated.

He continued: “At that particular time, Damar (Forbes) and I were tied in the ranking with 8.16m before he went and jumped that monster (8.23m) in Monaco.”

Smith, 28, who is ranked 24th in the world, recently switched allegiance from Canada to Jamaica on July 11. He was actually born in Jamaica and attended Naggo Head Primary School in Portmore before migrating to Canada at a very early age.

He then represented the North Americans at the World University Games, while attending Florida International University (FIU) in 2015. But he remained anonymous to most Jamaicans

“I did fly under the radar. I guess I blew up in 2014 at FIU at the Conference Championships,” he pointed out.

“Canada was tracking me because they expected me to be on the Canadian team. But the switch was easy because I was naturalised in Canada. It’s only right they get the second biggest game which is World Universities. I was born in Jamaica, and my family said it would be very nice to compete for Jamaica, which is my birth country. It’s only right they get the biggest game – the Olympic Games,” said Smith.

Smith, who started out as triple jumper before switching to long jump, said he has settled in nicely with his new teammates, and being a person that goals for himself, he expects to be in the final at the Olympic Games.

“I don’t really live in the moment. I got here, what’s my next goal? My next goal is to make the finals. I don’t sit in the moment and expect to revel that I am an Olympian. It’s just the Olympics to me and there are other goals that I set and I want to obtain,” he added.

“So for now, it is to make the finals. After that, hopefully, a medal. I just keep making goals for myself and try to hit them. There is nothing special about me, I am just an aspiring individual,” said Smith.