Bermuda's Oliver Riihiluoma made a robust start to sailing's Junior Gold Cup yesterday, placing second in both races to lead the regatta after the first day.

His low score of four points is two better than second-placed Lukasz Przybytek's six points as the Polish Optimist sailor won the opening race but slipped to fifth in his second outing.

Another local teen, Sean Bouchard, is keeping Bermuda in the hunt for top honours against the challenge of nine of their international peers. He is currently third on seven points (fourth and third) while New Zealand's Paul Snow-Hansen, fourth on nine points (third and sixth), and Hannah Mills of the UK, fifth on 11 points (tenth and first), round out the top five.

“These were my conditions and I got up in the top five, held my place and I did really well,” said Riihiluoma of racing in Granaway Deep .

The 12-year-old hopes this performance will launch his bid for victory though he noted there were a lot of “good contenders” such as Mills and Nicklas Dackhammar of Sweden. The latter is well within striking distance, sixth overall on 12 points.

Przybytek's coach expressed satisfaction with how his charge fared in opening action, noting that Poland's number one junior sailor was doing well in these “beautiful conditions for sailing”.

Mills too was relatively happy with her results thus far.

“I've done okay at the moment. I had a pretty bad first race. I was about tenth or something but then I won the second race,” she said, adding that conditions were “pretty shifty and gusty”.

The 15-year-old, who was lured into the sport after watching her brothers sail, is hoping to finish in the top five among the 30 competitors.

Meanwhile, Bouchard is keen to move up the standings and cement his contention for major honours. To that extent, the 12-year-old will be praying winds remain between ten to 15 knots which are his ideal conditions.

Three other Bermudians - William Hutchings (eighth), Joshua Greenslade (14th) and Peter Miller (19th) - are also looking to impress in the Renaissance Reinsurance-sponsored event.

“I didn't do as well as I thought I could. It was very shifty in Granaway and it was very hard to play the shifts. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you get knocked. It's luck of the draw out there. It can be confusing,” said 13-year-old Miller.

Despite yesterday's lay day in the King Edwards VII Gold Cup, the juniors were not the only ones on the water as the Pro-Am regatta took place in Hamilton Harbour.

Dennis Conner bounced back from Wednesday's first-round defeat to Paula Lewin to wrest the title with Team Izod.

All eyes will be focused on the eight Gold Cup quarter-finalists this morning as they compete for berths in the semi-finals.

The Island's sole hope, Lewin, locks horns with last year's champion Jesper Radich of Denmark while New Zealand's Russell Coutts meets Peter Gilmour of Australia. The other two match-ups feature American Bill Hardesty against New Zealander Dean Barker as Barker's compatriot Chris Dickson takes on another Dane, Jes Gram-Hansen.