Bermuda's Jesse Kirkland retained his title at the Orange Bowl Junior Olympic Regatta grabbing the honour on the last beat of the 12th and final race.

The 14-year-old saw off 131 competitors in the Optimist Championship fleet at the event in Miami, Florida.

Kirkland jousted throughout the entire regatta with fellow 14-year-old Kyle Rogachenko of Tom River, New Jersey but the former's third place finish in the last race was enough to give him the glory.

"I have gained 20lbs since last year so I was suffering upwind in the chop and middle wind so I had to rely on downwind speed and good tactics," said a delighted Kirkland afterwards.

Although Kirkland won four races, he often had to come from behind on the downwind legs to seal the overall title (2-OCS-3-5-1-1-1-4-5-6-1-3).

Fellow Bermudians Cameron Pimental and Oliver Riihilouma sailed to excellent 13th and 15th finishes respectively. Pimental, the most improved advanced sailor in Bermuda this fall, flew in the last race to finish fourth just behind Kirkland.

William Hutchings was 32nd followed by heavyweight Martin Danielak (43rd) and newcomer Ryan Saraiva, 52nd in his first overseas regatta.

In the Green Fleet, Bermuda was represented by six sailors.

James Anfossi, most improved intermediate sailor this fall, put his Christmas present of a new sail to good effect by posting sixth overall out of 52. Anthony Bailey was ninth and Alistair Hutchings 12th. Only eight points separated Lance Fraser, Jason and Jordan Saints in 14th, 15th and 16th.

In the senior Laser fleet Zan Kirkland (19) finished third out of 25 competitors with Brett Wright the leading Master in sixth.

Kirkland and Wright were part of a tight leading pack that included four South Americans from Chile and Argentina.

Kirkland relied on good starting, tactics and downwind speed to tally finishes of 6-5-1-5-2-6. Two capsizes in the final race precluded a good shot at second place.

"It was good tight racing and I find college sailing has helped with in-close tactics," he said afterwards.

Olympic hopeful Matias Del Solar of Chile was first.

In the high performance double-handed 29'ER fleet, sixteen-year-olds James Doughty and Gareth Williams excelled when the breeze was at the high end to post fourth overall out of ten boats including two from California. Their finishes were 8-8-3-1-5-7-2-2-3-5.

In the Laser Radial class, Katrina Williams, new to the division, finished an excellent 35 out of 77 competitors.