Sailing Championships in the United Arab Emirates yesterday at the quarter-final stage.

Lewin, who has her sister Peta, Leatrice Roman and Lisa Neasham as crew, finished as the top qualifier after the round-robin with a 13-3 record and was expected to make a strong bid for the title.

However, as often happens in the knockout stage of competitions, Lewin was ousted by the lowest of the qualifiers, eighth-ranked Christine Briand of France 3-2 in the best-of-five match.

Lewin, ranked number one by the IAAF, will finish the regatta in fifth place.

There was another upset when fourth-ranked Helena Strange of Sweden, whom Lewin was expected to meet in the semi-finals, was beaten 3-1 by Klaartje Zuiderbaan of the Netherlands 3-1. Zuiderbaan was the fifth-best qualifier. In the other quarter-final matches, Dorte Jensen of Denmark, who finished second, stopped fellow Dane Marie Klok 3-0 and American Betsy Allison got by Shirley Robertson of Great Britain, who was ranked third.

Today's semi-final match-up has Briand taking on Zuiderbaan and Jensen meets Allison.

While Lewin had her worst performance in the regatta, another Bermuda sailor, Peter Bromby, had his best day so far in the Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta in Miami yesterday.

Bromby won the fourth race after placing fifth, 11th and an OCS (premature start) in the first three races which had put him 22nd overall. Yesterday's win moved him up to 16th among the 66 boats with 84 points but could move into fourth place with the throw-out result.

Bromby is partnered by 29-year-old Canadian Kai Bjorn.

Five-time Bacardi Cup champion and 1992 Olympic gold medalist Mark Reynolds of San Diego leads the regatta with two races remaining. He had 13 points from a fourth, sixth, first and second in the first four races. The defending champion is just one point ahead of 1997 and '81 Star world champion Alexander Hagen. Races five and six will be held today and tomorrow.