Bermuda will have just one representative in the championship round of the $100,000 Brut Gold Cup after Paula Lewin and Adam Barboza were eliminated during yesterday's qualfication series, leaving Blythe Walker to carry the local banner alone.

Entering the day with identical 2-2 records after four matches, Lewin and Barboza saw their fortunes dip heavily as each recorded just a single win in the morning session against two losses to fall from contention at 3-4.

Lewin, Bermuda's first female ever to appear in the Gold Cup, had her chances extinguished as she plummeted to defeat -- first against Canada's Ross MacDonald after leading in the early stages and then with a narrow, three second loss to Markus Wieser of Germany.

To her credit she was able to recover and beat Britain's Chris Law. But by then her fate had already been sealed.

Still, Lewin remained upbeat and looked forward to another possible opportunity next year.

"It was promising. I didn't expect much and I guess when you aren't into it (match racing) and not actually used to the sailing you let pressure build up.

But when you're into it and you just do what you do things go well, but I'm very happy,'' said Lewin, who had high praise for her crew of brother Andreas Lewin, sister Peta Lewin and Gary Roman.

"Yesterday (Monday) we had a race but it was really light and for our start there was no wind which was really unfortunate. We started behind, caught up and were leading and made one grave error, lost the lead and a potential win.

"Today against Markus (Wieser) we gave him a penalty and he beat us by not very much and those (races) would have made the difference and they were both within our grasp. We'll just have to be a little faster and try harder next time.'' For Barboza a rapid start preceded a slow finish as after defeating America's J.J.Isler in the day's opener he appeared out of sorts the next two times out, losing to a then winless Anders Geert-Jensen of Denmark and compounded his misery in going down to Britain's Stuart Childerley, when a win would have guaranteed a place in the first round and at least $400 in cash.

"We got lucky to win the first race against J.J., but we weren't competitive after that,'' said Barboza, still recovering from surgery to both knees. "I'm just glad to be sailing again in such a great event that gives us the chance to compete against these guys.'' However, the day's undoubted star was Wieser, as he continued to display the form that has garnered him 10th place among the Omega World Match Race rankings.

Wieser is currently on a six race win streak -- he finished with a 6-1 record -- having dropped his initial match to Barboza and looks like presenting quite a challenge to first round opponent Paul Cayard -- he of America's Cup fame.

The German actually is higher ranked than Cayard -- 10th compared to 11th for the American -- but at this stage Wieser said little stood between the pair.

"You never know. Paul didn't sail a lot of match races this year and we gained a lot in the rankings but you never know who will win, only when you cross the finish line.'' said Wieser. "It can be really tough sailing against Paul and we will give him a hard time as well I'm sure.

"My crew have done a fantastic job -- even with bad starts -- they have worked very hard for me and allowed me to gain back what I lost with mistakes and I think we will come up there in the first round.

"We normally do very well here in Bermuda and I hope we have a good chance this time.'' Other qualifiers were Ross MacDonald (5-2), Law (4-3) and Childerley (4-3).

MacDonald is set to face Dutchman Roy Heiner, Law battles Bertrand Pace, while Childerley has the unenviable task of tackling current world number one and reigning America's Cup champion helmsman Russell Coutts of New Zealand.

See Scoreboard for full results and today's draw RARE AIR -- Kelvin Harrup, crewing for Stuart Childerly, has an airy feeling as he retreats up the mast to make repairs during mid-race yesterday.