Malcolm Smith is on the top of the world once again.

The Bermudian sailor captured the Sunfish World Championships for a third time in style yesterday, taking an unassailable lead at the top of the standings with a day to spare.

Smith, who was out in front heading into the day's sailing in St. Maarten, secured a third, a second and a first. After eight races, this year's Pan Am Games silver medallist has 24 points with his nearest competitor, Diego Zimmerman of Peru, only capable of getting 25.

Even with a last place finish today - a race in which Smith does not have to compete but will anyway - the Islander cannot be caught as he still has one discard at his disposal.

"I guess it really hasn't sunk in," said the publicity shy 44-year-old last night, almost as if he thought someone might yet wrest the title from his grasp. "We still have one more race and the points are still so close. I am going to go ahead and sail tomorrow's race and try and better my current drop.

"I don't want to get involved in some of the other battles for second, third and fourth but I just want to go out there and sail the final race."

Smith said he knew winning was within his grasp, but his intention yesterday was just to put some distance between himself and his competitors going into the finale.

"I knew I had a good chance to win the Worlds again but my goal was just to go out and try and solidify my first place," he said. "I wanted to try and open up the points spread (but) everything fell together really well and I had three really good races. No-one else had a consistent day.

"It was very close though because in the last race Zimmerman was in second for most of the race and then on the final beat going into the finish he lost one boat. That gave me the point I needed to win the championship."

Smith, whose finishes in the eight races so far read 1-1-9-4-3-3-2-1, said his biggest battle had come in the middle of the regatta. But it was the weather rather than competitors he had had to overcome.

"Wednesday was very difficult," he said. "It was a very long, stressful day because of the very hot temperatures and the lack of breeze. It wears you down. I had a fourth and third on that day so I was fortunate to get two good finishes."

Smith, who secured silver at the Pan Ams in Santo Domingo in August, said the past 12 months had been very rewarding.

"It has been an excellent year for me," he said. "Right back to the Midwinters in March where I got second, it has been a really good year for me."

He said "sticking with it" and putting in a lot of hard work had got him to this stage.

"This regatta wasn't easy," he said. "It wasn't a walk in the park. The races were very tough. The conditions were very shifty . . . anything from five to 15 degrees oscillating shifts throughout the races. I figured the left side of the course worked really good with the wind coming from the north east in sort of a semi-offshore breeze.

"With the wind in that direction it was nice because it's very similar to sailing back home, it's something we are very used to. Shifting conditions are something that I seem to do fairly well in. I am very happy."