PONCE, Puerto Rico -- Bermuda will bring home a third medal this week from the Central American and Caribbean Games after Stevie Dickinson produced a magnificent fightback to land the silver in the Snipe class in Fajardo.

However, by the narrowest of margins, Bermuda missed out on a fourth medal when Malcolm Smith in the Laser class was denied the bronze by 1.40 points.

His third-place finish yesterday left him on 46.10 after his throw-away race of 18 points.

The bronze in that class was taken by Paulus Dielemans of the Netherlands Antilles on 44.70 points. Cuban's Osvaldo Padron and Jose Arbay were first and second on 28.00 and 38.00 points.

Peter Bromby and Glen Astwood also just missed the bronze in the J-24 and Hobie 16 classes. Bromby had to settle for fourth amongst 16 boats in the class despite winning the sixth race on Saturday and placing second yesterday.

After his discarded race, Bromby finished with 39.40 points while Yon Belausteguigoit of Mexico took the bronze with 32.70 points after placing seventh yesterday.

The gold and silver in the J-24s were won by Venezuela's Mauricio Costanzo and Puerto Rico's Tom Hill.

A fourth place by Astwood would have earned him the bronze in the Hobie 16s after Puerto Rico took the top three spots and were thus denied the bronze because no country is allowed to win all three medals in any one class.

As a result, the bronze went to Yuan Maegli of Guatemala who finished on 46.80 points in fourth while Astwood was fifth with 56.40 after a fourth on the last day.

Gold medallist Enrique Figueroa wrapped up the series by winning the first six races of the class and did not need to race yesterday.

But the weekend belonged to Dickinson who showed why he is rated one of Bermuda's top sailors. A regatta, which started badly for the 33-year-old St.

Georgian, ended on a bright note when he and crew Heath Foggo notched their third straight win yesterday to assure a second-place finish in the seven-boat fleet.

In fact, Dickinson was in such brilliant form that there was a comfortable 10 points separating him from the third-place boat at the end of the five-race series.

Juan Mari of Puerto Rico had a second-place finish yesterday to go with a third, fifth, fifth and third in his first four races to clinch the bronze.

The class was won by Nelida Manso of Cuba whose lead was so convincing after two firsts and two seconds that he had the class wrapped up on Saturday night and did not sail yesterday.

Manso finished on six points while Dickinson had 14 and Mari 24.4. Bermuda's other sailors were Brett Wright in the Lasers where he was 16th overall and Jay Kempe who was eighth of out of 10 boats in the Hobie 16s after a sixth-place finish yesterday.

The Island's cyclists Dana Henry and Clarke Tear completed the gruelling 100-mile road race (160 kilometres) on Saturday -- even though the official time clock had already been dismantled by the time they reached the finish line more than 40 minutes after the first rider.

The third Bermuda entry, Mike Lee, dropped out of the six-lap race after three-and-a-half laps. In fact, about half of the 85 riders who began the race in the town of Penuelas did not complete the race, which was dominated by the Colombians, Mexicans, Guatemalans and Venezuelans.

Fredy Moncado of Colombia won the race in four hours, seven minutes and 31 seconds but was disqualified at the finish because two of his team-mates pushed riders in the pack.

Henry, in his first 100-mile race, finished in an unofficial time of four hours and 47 minutes, a couple of minutes after the clock had been switched off while Tear came home in four hours and 58 minutes.

"It just goes to show no matter how good you may be at home, out here it's a different ball game,'' said Henry.

"We did the first three miles under five minutes and I was with the lead pack until that hill when I dropped and then fought my way back. That hill was treacherous but was a real good hill for a road race.'' Added Henry: "It was a very hard 100 miles and I did the last 50 on my own.

Everything on me is hurting, from my neck right down to my toes. I thought about dropping out but I told myself I wanted to finish even if I came dead last.'' Tear, too, gave some thought to succumbing to the challenge of the hilly course. "I did at one point, my feet were hurting but once I put some water on them they were all right. I think I am getting too old for this stuff. I just wanted to finish.'' The hockey teams suffered further defeats yesterday, with the women losing a penalty shoot-out 4-2 to Mexico to decide the fifth-place team. Regulation time ended 1-1 with captain Joanne Wilson scoring for Bermuda from a penalty flick.

The men went down 4-0 to Puerto Rico in their consolation match. Yesterday was the last day of competition for Bermuda participants.

AND STEVIE MAKES THREE -- Proud swimmer Chris Flook, back on local soil with his silver and bronze medals from the 100 and 200 metres breaststroke events, was joined by sailor Stevie Dickinson yesterday as the sailor won a silver medal in the Snipe class.