RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Despite qualifying equal first for Saturday's Olympic long jump final, Brazil's Mauro Vinicius da Silva says he must improve to have any chance of a medal.

Silva, the current indoor world champion, leapt 8.11m on Friday to equal the distance set by U.S. athlete Marquise Goodwin.

"I have to improve on that because 8.11m is not going to be good enough for a medal," Silva told Sportv.

"I have to stay focused and do whatever I can to jump further. The job is only half complete."

The 25-year-old's task has been aided by Friday's elimination of defending Olympic champion Irving Saladino from Panama, who bombed out with three successive fouls.

Others expected to vie for the gold medal include Britain's Greg Rutherford, Russia's Aleksandr Menkov and Australian Michael Watt.?