in the opening match races of this week's World Soling Championships in Murcia, Spain, went on to qualify for the Sydney Olympics.

Bermuda's own Olympic dream was shattered when bowman Ray DeSilva suffered a painful chest injury which left his fellow crew members, skipper Adam Barboza and Nick Jones, no option but to withdraw.

Bermuda were competing with seven other countries in the match racing phase for two places in the 10-team Soling event at the Sydney Games.

But after DeSilva pulled chest muscles in Monday's opening race against Finland and struggled through a second race against Canada, the crew decided they had to pull out.

The four-day knockout phase saw eight countries compete for the remaining two Olympic places.

Japan, Uruguay and Argentina were knocked out in the preliminary stage.

Austria and Brazil were the unlucky crews to lose out in the semi-finals of the event which took two days to complete after high winds, followed by a complete lack of wind, wreaked havoc with the scheduling.

The match race qualifiers followed immediately after the world championships in Murcia last week, which were won by the United States.