A sensational day on the waters of Sydney Harbour has propelled Peter Bromby to within sight of the one major trophy that has so far eluded him in an already illustrious sailing career -- an Olympic medal.

A fourth place finish in race five yesterday followed by victory in race six -- Bromby's first-ever triumph in an Olympic regatta -- lifted the Star Class skipper and crew Lee White into the silver medal position.

Now with just five races remaining -- two today, two on Thursday and the finale on Saturday -- the Bermudian pair face the most intense and nerve-racking competition of their lives.

And with as many as 10 countries still in medal contention, it promises to be a thrilling battle.

But should they prevail, Bromby and White would become only Bermuda's second-ever Olympic medallists. Boxer Clarence Hill remains the Island's sole Games medal-winner, having brought back bronze from Montreal 24 years ago.

"Am I nervous? I'd like to say `no' but I'd be lying,'' said Bromby, wearing a grin broader than the bow of his boat.

"This has been a great day but there's still a long way to go. We're just over half way through and we're happy to be where we are. We've never been in this position in the Olympics before. But the hard part's still ahead.'' With six races now complete and competitors allowed to drop their worst result --they'll also drop a second race at the end of the regatta -- gold medallists in Atlanta four years ago, Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira of Brazil lead the standings with just 13 points. After a first and a sixth yesterday, they dropped their worst finish of 13th and now have an impressive looking record which reads 3-1-2-1-6.

But Bromby and White, tied on 20 points with Australians Colin Beashel and David Giles, are by no means out of the gold medal chase.

Their worst result was a 10th on day one, leaving them with a record of 4-3-8-4-1. The hometown Aussie favourites placed second and third yesterday for a record of 8-6-1-3-2.

Also in the chase on 22 points are Britons Ian Walker and Mark Covell with the Spanish pair Jose Maria van der Ploeg and Rafael Trujillo in fifth place on 25. Three of world sailing's biggest guns, American Mark Reynolds (34 points), Canadian Ross MacDonald (34) and New Zealander Gavin Brady (35) hold down seventh, eighth and ninth places respectively and can still mount a challenge.

On a day when the wind blew harder than it has since the regatta began, at times exceeding 15 knots, and with intermittent showers making racing uncomfortable, Bromby confessed he had been surprised by their success.

"The thing that was encouraging for us was that we went out there today with conditions not as we wanted, thinking `this isn't going to be our day','' he said. "And to tell you the truth I'm still really not sure why we sailed so well. Everything just went well, the boat was going well and we were hitting the shifts well.

"They say every dog has his day and I guess ours was today.'' But as thrilled as he was, Bromby accepted they should have been alone in second place at the end of the day after squandering two positions late in race five.

"We were second in that race all the way round and we gave up two boats right at the finish. If it wasn't for that we would be very much in the gold medal hunt. As it is, we're still not out of it, but it could have been an even better day.'' In race six, the 36-year-old skipper made no mistake, leading from the start and around every mark except the second where they briefly trailed the Dutch.

But it was a nail-biting finish as Bromby and White got to the line just three seconds ahead of Beashel and Giles with the Brits another 15 seconds behind.

Bermuda's other Olympic sailor, Sara Lane Wright, continued to have problems at the start line as she posted a pair of 23rd place finishes in races seven and eight of the Europe Dinghy Class yesterday.

With three races remaining -- two on Thursday and the last on Friday -- Wright holds down 25th place in the 27-boat fleet.

Sitting pretty: Lee White (front) and Peter Bromby, tied for second place in the Olympic Star class.

SAILING SLG