Tyler Smith continued his quest for Olympic Games qualification with an impressive sixth at the Americas Triathlon Cup La Paz, in Mexico, on Saturday.

Competing in the Olympic distance elite men’s field, Smith exited the water after the 1.5-kilometre swim in tenth place in a time of 14min 14sec before making up five places on the 40km bike, clocking 56:15.

However, he just failed to hold on for a top-five finish on the 10km run, as he crossed the line in a total time of 1hr 42min 29sec, slightly less than a minute adrift of Mexico’s Aram Peñaflor Moysen’s winning time of 1:41:39.

James Edgar, of Ireland, was the runner-up, crossing the line in 1:42:10, to pip Ukraine’s Vitalii Vorontsov, who completed the podium places in 1:42:12.

It was Smith’s second successive top-ten finish in as many weeks after he placed tenth at the Americas Triathlon Championships, which was held on the Homestead-Miami Speedway earlier this month.

The 25-year-old finds himself in 106th place in the World Triathlon individual Olympic rankings as things stand, with 55 places on offer in the men’s event at the Games in Paris ahead of the two-year qualification cut-off period ending on May 27.