Bermuda's young Byte sailors qualified the Island for a spot at this summer's Youth Olympics in Singapore after finishing the North American and Caribbean regional qualifying event in the Cayman Islands yesterday.

Who actually goes to fly the flag in Singapore in August remains to be seen as the sailors are expected to have a sail-off in Bermuda in early July.

Somers Cooper, head of the Bermuda Sailing Association and who is with the team, said last night: "This is a great day. I am really proud of these guys. Bermuda will be going to the first ever Youth Olympics."

Cooper added: "The combination of hard work and training these boys have under their belt along with world class coaching of the Weber brothers has created a unique opportunity for Bermuda as we will be attending the first Youth Olympic Games. I am extremely pleased with the results and it is quite evident that Bermuda's youth can challenge the world's best in the sport of sailing."

Bermuda had three sailors qualify for a spot at the Youth Olympics with final finishes of fifth, sixth and seventh.

Bermuda had to have a sailor finish in the top four countries to qualify for Singapore.

First overall after yesterday's final and 16th race was Ian Barrows from the US Virgin Islands while second was Eugene Hendrikx from the Dutch Antilles. Third was Spain's Marti Llena and fourth was Kevin Otterdijk from the Dutch Antilles followed by Bermuda's Rahiem Steede in fifth place, Kalin Hillier in sixth and Owen Siese in seventh.

Spain's Llena had already qualified for the Youth Olympics and was just using the Cayman regatta as training and with two sailors from the Dutch Antilles finishing above Bermuda it meant that the three Bermudians qualified for the third country spot. The fourth spot for the Youth Olympics went to Cuba's Lester Martinez who finished in eight place – but the fourth country.

Top Bermuda sailor Steede had a particularly good regatta and never finished out of the top ten in the 16 races (one throw out).

Bermuda sent six sailors to the Cayman Islands for the regatta and the remaining three were Dimitri Stevens who finished in 10th place, Alexander Davis who ended up in 22nd place and MacKenzie Cooper who finished in 25th place.

Cooper said: "The strength of the Bermuda team at the top of the leaderboard left nothing to chance. Coaches Pablo and Dino Weber were both proud and relieved that all the hard work and training had paid off and now turn their sights on the goal of getting Bermuda in medal contention shape for the YOG in Singapore this coming August.

"In preparation, Steede, Hillier, Siese, Stevens and Davis will be attending the Byte CII World Championships in Cannes, France next month. Training in Bermuda will continue both before and after the Worlds with the class looking to hold their 2010 National Championships early this summer to determine which one sailor will have the honour to represent Bermuda in August."

At the World Championships Bermuda's sailors will be up against many of the sailors who will be heading to Singapore in August.

Since September Bermuda's Byte sailors have been training hard for this qualifying regatta and a number of the sailors who they competed against over the past week came to the Island for training camps – the last staged in February.

The winner in the Caymans, Ian Barrows from the US Virgin Islands, was here during February's camp as were the sailors from the Dutch Antilles. And Bermuda's history with their competitors this past week goes back to when they all competed against each other at international Optimist championships before moving to the Bytes.