rounds -- which start tomorrow -- appear to favour Bermuda's Peter Bromby, but it may be a tough road to the first round for Blythe Walker.

Bromby was placed in Group Two -- each group has eight members -- where he enters as the second highest-ranked competitor next to Frenchman Thierry Peponnet -- Bromby has a Omega/IYRU world ranking of 37, while Peponnet is ranked 14th.

However, Walker and his three man outfit of Mike Tatem, Todd Irving and Scott Simmons -- without a world ranking -- find themselves locked in Group One against the likes of Swede Magnus Holmberg (10th), Marc Pajot of France (23rd) and Marcus Weiser (18th).

Undaunted, the fourth-year participant expressed optimism at his chances of going through at the end of the round robin phase as one of the four qualifiers from his section.

"It looks like a tough group of guys,'' said Walker after being formally announced by Henry Smith, along with Bromby, as a Bank of Bermuda-sponsored entry. "There are some America's Cup skippers and top match race skippers.

It's definitely good competition, we'll see how things go and hopefully be successful.

"I just love the competition. Everybody's out there to win and so are we...no ands, ifs or buts about it.

"I respect them for their sailing ability, but when you're out there on the race course it's `Russell who?'...just another boat.'' Meanwhile, Bromby was not ready to call in his hand, but instead is taking a wait-and-see approach.

The reigning three-time IOD world champion said that he realised that there was pressure on himself and his crew to do well and that it would take a supreme team effort for them to be able to enjoy the spoils of victory.

"We're looking forward to getting out there and getting it started,'' said Bromby, whose crew contains veteran campaigners Penny Simmons, Lee White and Dennis Correia. "Obviously last year we set a tough act to follow. We did well and Bermuda expects a lot of us this year.

"We need to take one race at a time and have to remember that it took a lot of sailing for us to get as far as we did last year and to do better we'll have to dig a bit deeper.

"We have expectations as does the rest of Bermuda, but you can't lose track of the fact that we're racing against the best in the world. So as far as I'm concerned it's been a success in that we've got this far, because we've been racing against the best in Bermuda to get into the (Omega) Gold Cup and anything else that happens is a bonus.'' A disputed penalty turn assessed against him in the deciding fifth race of his quarter-final series against New Zealand's Russell Coutts cost him a win and it remains in the back of the Bermudian's mind, but he would not admit to seeking revenge against the Kiwi. Coutts went on to win the title.

He claimed to have learned from the experience the important knowledge of match racing rules, an area where Coutts is without peer.

"Certainly that's (penalty) on our minds, but at the same time it's history.

"That happened last year and the thing we got out of it was to go away and spend as much time on the rules as we could. With the Nation's Cup we were able to sit in on a couple of rule meetings and hopefully that'll do us well at this regatta.

"As a team we're going to have to sail 110 percent and certainly get a few breaks at the right times. You can only play the cards that are in your hand, you can't play what's not there...hopefully we'll get a lot of trumps.'' Firmly positioned in the pair's corner is the Bank of Bermuda. General Manager of Retail Banking Henry Smith added that is was the bank's pleasure to be able to contribute to such a fine event and sport in general.

To emphasise this point he drew a quote from an essay written by Jack Arnell, saying: "There are few places where both sailing and races are so inexpensive and so exciting or where it is carried on by all classes with so much energy and enthusiasm as at Bermuda.'' TIMING IS EVERYTHING -- Bermudian Peter Bromby, right, shown here during last year's Omega Gold Cup, knows he will have to dig deep to bring home some Omega gold.