Despite withdrawing from the Star World Championships with a race remaining and falling to sixth overall, Bermuda?s Peter Bromby is still among the top skippers in that class.

The latest world rankings released on Thursday place the Bermudian third internationally behind world champion Frederik Loof of Sweden and Britain?s Iain Percy who finished third at the Worlds.

?The class has a huge nation base and the Olympic medals could come from any number of sailors, any number of nations and any number of continents,? noted an Internet article on the new rankings.

?All that can be said are that favourites are all in the rankings and when it comes to predicting the result in Athens, it?s anyone?s game.?

Bromby?s decision to bow out of the Worlds after the penultimate race and not compete in the sixth one was, he explained, based on their unforeseen predicament caused by poor sailing conditions.

?Logistically, with all the delays because of the conditions they had over there, it was a nightmare so we decided to leave early,? he said of what happened in Gaeta, Italy.

?It was a bit disappointing because we could have finished higher than sixth which is the same spot we have finished for the last three years in a row. ?Missing the last race cost us a shot at second place ultimately.?

Noting the ?primarily light? winds meant ?there was a lot of sitting around and waiting?, the 39-year-old said various mitigating factors, including urgent commitments back here and the prospect of missing their connecting flights, governed them opting for an early exit.

?It wasn?t worth staying. We didn?t have a bad race so we could use our discard by not being there. It wasn?t like we would go into freefall badly because we didn?t do the last race. Things actually went quite well.?

Bromby ended with 45 points from six races with one drop. Loof celebrated victory with the low score 23 points while Flavio Marazzi of Switzerland was second with 32 points and Percy third on 38.

Given that the Olympics are less than a hundred days away, Bromby termed the Worlds ?a good measuring stick?, adding his satisfaction with how training is proceeding.

? magazine was there covering it and were quite complimentary towards us, saying we were genuine medal contenders. That?s pretty much where we want to be right now.

?Things are going fine. We?ve got two more events and we?ve also got two sessions planned in Greece at the site of the Games,? he said, alluding to Spa Week in the Netherlands and Kiel Week in Germany.

Another plus is the fact that Bromby has finally chosen his crew and now he and Lee White can focus more on the mission ahead while Martin Siese ? Bromby?s other crew option ? remains with them.

?Things were beginning to get a bit cumbersome and we made the decision. It wasn?t an easy decision because they are both very good,? said the Bermudian skipper.

?Fortunately Martin stayed on in a coaching capacity and that?s good because he is familiar with the problems we have on board.?