Bermuda's Nick Kyme was gunning for a bronze medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games last night.

The Island's number one squash player was up against Bernardo Samper of Colombia in the quarter-finals of the singles competition in El Salvador. Victory would guarantee a bronze but also offer the Bermudian a chance of winning gold or silver.

Kyme, who turned professional last month, breezed into the second round on Sunday evening.

He convincingly swept aside Hidal Imberton of El Salvador in three games, 9-0, 9-1, 9-1. The younger Imberton was no match for Kyme's superior racquet play, power and speed.

"Nick was never seriously troubled in the match in front of a vociferous home crowd supporting their player," said Bermuda's director of squash Ross Triffitt from the court.

Yesterday Kyme moved into the quarter-finals with a 3-0 victory over El Salvador's number one, Calde Coronado.

Overcoming noisy home crowd support for his opponent, and some indifferent refereeing, Kyme beat Coronado 9-6, 9-4, 9-4.

"Lapses in concentration by Nick made the scoreline closer than the players' abilities warranted," said Triffitt.

Bermuda's other representatives had gone out in the earlier rounds.

Melrindo Caines battled well but went down 3-0 (6-9, 4-0, 7-9) to Jamaican number two Ronnie Prescod.

Caines started well, advancing to 3-0 in the first game with little effort. He then moved to 6-2 on both his decisive winners and errors by Prescod.

However, from that point on Caines' fortunes declined and Prescod improved. The Jamaican played with increasing confidence and Caines started making errors.

Prescod took the first game 9-6 on an error by Caines and the second game went much the same way.

Caines' big chance came in the third game when he moved to 4-1, then 7-4 up. It looked a foregone conclusion that he would take the game but his rival fought back to move to match ball 8-7 as errors crept back into Caines' game. Although Caines won back service, Prescod persevered and ran out the game 9-7.

James Stout fared slightly better against Jamaican number one and former Caribbean men's champion Wayne Burrowes, taking the first game 10-8.

"From that point onwards Burrowes tended to dominate the rallies though James had his moments," said Triffitt. "It was a case of Burrowes' maturity and experience winning out over James' fitness and youth."

Burrowes made good use of his backhand boast to draw Stout up to the front and cut off the Bermudian's crosscourt drive, forcing him into the back corners.

The match took its toll on both players but Burrowes came out on top, winning 8-10, 9-3, 9-4, 9-2.