The flat waters and light breeze on Hamilton Harbour provided a challenging battleground for the competitors in the Virtual Spectator Women?s World Match Racing Championships yesterday.

Marje Bjorling and her Swedish crew ended the day as clear leaders with a 9-2 scoreline followed by Betsy Alison (USA) in second place and Nina Braestrup from Denmark in third.

Local favourite Paula Lewin ended yesterday?s round robin in eighth place after finishing on the wrong side of a four-way tie.

?The game really changed and many of the women really hit their stride,? said the Olympian.

?It is a huge disappointment for us but this event has really helped develop match racing for women and put Bermuda on the map. It has been a great opportunity for all of us to race at this level and then have a shot against the seeded men for the Gold Cup later this week.?

Bjorling, who races with her team of Annika Carlunger, Elisabeth Nilsson, and Anna Holmdahl, said: ?We sailed with a lot of discipline and great crew work and it was very tactical sailing. The upwind work was critical and on the downwind we had to be fast and we were.?

While Bjorling has enjoyed a stellar two days of racing, Sally Barkow, the defending American world champion climbed back from a mid-fleet position in the heavier winds experienced on Saturday to take fourth place.

?We are pretty happy about our racing and we are going to go at them hard in the next round,? she said.

?We are finally getting used to the J24 class yachts which, of course, is the beauty of match racing as you have to jump into different boats and get used to them quickly.?

American sailing veteran Alison, who won all six of her races on Saturday, struggled in the lighter conditions yesterday but is still well placed to make the cut today.

?We lost three matches because of my poor starts. In this kind of racing it comes down to staying ahead of the competition,? said Alison, who is racing with Nancy Haberland, Chafee Emory and Sandy Hayes. ?We now have to go out and fight hard.?

One to enjoy a great comeback has been French sailor Claire Leroy, who ended up in fifth place.

?We mastered the boat today and it was very good for us to be in the top six,? said Leroy. ?Our crew work was fantastic and I think that is what really did it.?

Danish sailor Braestrup, now in third place, has sailed a brilliant regatta over the first two days and the young Australian team skippered by Nicky Souter are also pleased with their sixth place.