Jochen Schuemann after the pair were once more drawn together in the first round of the championship at Hamilton Harbour.

Last year, the German Olympic gold medallist was the round-robin qualifier and Bromby the seed, but Schuemann overturned the formbook by winning three-one before being defeated by eventual winner Russel Coutts in the quarter-finals.

Tomorrow, the situation will be reversed when Bromby, who came through as the top qualifier in his group with six wins and one defeat, takes on Schuemann, who comes to the Island as the number seven seed.

Bromby said: "We hope this year we can pay him back; last year the difference between a three-one and a two-two was a penalty call. This time we're looking for a chance of revenge.'' Also carrying the hopes of Bermudians into the championship stages is Adam Barboza, whose opponent in the last 16 was in the balance until the final moments of his last race.

Going into the group's seventh flight, both Barboza and Gavin Brady, the 23-year-old representing Hong Kong, had been beaten only once. But on the final stretch Brady pulled away from Barboza to ensure a match against the lowest ranked seed, Briton Andy Beadsworth.

Barboza will now take on the number five seed from Sweden, Magnus Holmberg, who has an impressive Gold Cup record, beating the world's finest on his way to the finals in 1994, when he lost to Rod Davis.

Earlier in the day, Barboza lost a close-fought match with Ben Cesare of the US by just five seconds. Cesare was later caught up in the day's greatest controversy after his spinnaker split in an equally close tussle with fellow American John Burnham. The match, in the final flight of the day, would decide which of the pair would qualify.

The incident happened as Cesare rounded the top marker on Burnham's tail in a good position to attack on the downwind leg. Cesare claimed the tear had been caused by a Burnham infringement but the umpire following close behind raised his green flag to show he had noticed nothing untoward. Cesare, who eventually came in a full 46 seconds behind Burnham, tried a second protest at the finish which again was not upheld and Burnham advanced.

There was disappointment, too, for local supporters with the elimination of Paula Lewin, who struggled throughout to reproduce her best form. Lewin needed to win all her matches yesterday after suffering three defeats on Sunday. But with the exception of a victory over American Dave Whelan, who was disqualified after getting a black flag for two infringements for the second time, she suffered a blank day.

"Our record doesn't look good, '' Lewin admitted, "but we had five very close races and two disastrous ones. It's a great event and we learned a lot.'' Russian Andrew Arbuzov did manage a second-day comback, winning three successive races to turn a one-three deficit from Sunday into a 4-3 scoreline, becoming the only man to beat Bromby and earning the chance to do battle with number two seed, Australian Peter Gilmour, winner of the Gold Cup title two years ago.

In way of explanation, he treated the post-race press conference to a bit of Russian folk wisdom.

"We have a saying in our country,'' he told the gathering at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. "Russians are slow to start up, but fast runners afterwards.''