Defending champion Paula Lewin, will return to Hamilton Harbour for the 2003 Bermuda International Women's Match Racing Championship.

Lewin, currently competing in the Olympic Sailing World Championships in Cadiz, Spain, will face the top female sailors from the US, Denmark and Sweden in match-racing competition for $15,000 in prize money for the event scheduled for October 18-21.

The winner and runner-up of the Championship will advance to Round One of the Investors Guaranty Presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup, which runs from October 22-26, the second event of the Swedish Match Tour 2003-4, where they will compete for another $100,000 in prize money.

Lewin, ranked 17th in the world in match racing, will have her work cut out for her. She will compete head-to-head with the crew of current No.1 world-ranked skipper Marie Bjorling of Sweden. Jenny Axhede, who usually crews for Bjorling, will take over the helm in Bjorling's absence.

Klaartje Zuiderbaan of the Netherlands, who is ranked No.12 in the world, returns to competition, having placed third in last year's event.

American Betsy Alison, who is ranked No.8 and a past world match racing champion, will make her debut in Bermuda with this event.

Also returning from last year are Americans Deborah Willits of Houston, Texas (No.16), Elizabeth Kratzig of Corpus Christi, Texas (No.25), Sandy Hayes of Scituate, Massachusetts (No.21) and Sally Barkow of Nashotah, Wisconsin, who competed as an unseeded skipper in 2002.

"There will be an increase in the level of competition," said Lewin, who is an Olympic hopeful in the Yngling class. "Especially with the skippers who are returning from last year. They are going to be more savvy with the weather and the boats.

"Our team will have about a week before everyone else arrives for the regatta to practice boathandling in the IODs. And we will prepare exactly the same way as with our Yngling campaign.

"Every night there is a debrief of the day's racing, a rules discussion and a visualisation session on our strategy."

Now in its second year of offering women sailors elite-level competition and a significant prize purse, the Bermuda International Women's Match Racing Championship has become known as one of the premier events on the international women's match racing calendar.

"Interest is up with competitors around the world," said Lewin.

"It's a high profile, well run event that every woman sailor wants to do."

Meanwhile, Peter Bromby and Martin Siese are in eighth position in the Star Class at the Olympic Sailing World Championships.

The Bermudian pair scored a seventh, a 13th and a second yesterday. After dropping the 13th finish, they have a total of 20 points. Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell of Great Britain lead the way with a total of five points.