The hole got deeper for Peter Bromby and Lee White yesterday at the Olympics and, with a race unexpectedly scheduled for today, now is the time to start digging.

Limited to one race at the Aigos Kosmas Olympic Sailing Centre outside Athens because of inconsistent wind conditions, the Bermudian pair saw their dreams of Star Class glory shift closer to a nightmarish conclusion.

Needing desperately to record some top-five finishes, they could only manage 12th in the fifth of 11 races, leaving them 16th out of 17 overall with 47 points.

Brazilian Torben Grael still leads with the low score of eight points.

Bromby was especially disheartened because, once again, they were as high as sixth midway through the race only to falter badly.

?It was another disappointing result and I?ve got to say it?s starting to play on us. In the last year hardly ever have we been out of the top five and here we haven?t rounded a mark in the top five for the whole regatta so far.

?It?s obviously getting quite frustrating for us. Looking ahead from here we are going to treat the second half of this event as if it?s a separate regatta and try and do the best we can and see where we end up.

?We expected to do better and it?s disappointing to be 12th and just watching the thing slip away.?

?Over the last four years we have been one of the teams to beat,? he noted, his tone underlining the disappointment.

The 39-year-old skipper insisted they had not sailed badly and complimented White?s performance.

He said it was a matter of the luck not going their way and also conceded that he had made some minor but clearly costly tactical mistakes.

?At this level you pay for small mistakes,? he acknowledged while refusing to give up hope just yet.

?We?re not going to give up. We?ve got a lot of racing left and we?re going to do the best we can.?

The day?s second race and sixth overall was abandoned without a start as extremely shifty conditions made sailing impossible.

?The breeze never blew out of the same direction for more than half an hour the whole afternoon. We?ve seen every direction on the compass and the race committee just finally packed it in,? explained Bromby.

This has necessitated the use of today?s lay day for the make-up race and Bromby is optimistic this detour in schedule will prove to be just what they require.

?Tomorrow?s forecast is for conditions that may be a little more favourable to us. At this point we will take anything we can get,? he said frankly.In yesterday?s edition of , Peter Bromby was incorrectly described as the reigning Male Athlete of the Year. That honour belongs to fellow sailor Malcolm Smith. Bromby is a former Male Athlete of the Year. We apologise for the error.