Unseeded local skippers Peter Bromby and Glenn Astwood successfully qualified for tomorrow's opening round of the 2002 King Edward VII Gold Cup yesterday, while female Bermuda skipper Paula Lewin stormed through to today's semi-finals of the Women's International Match Racing Championships after yet another sizzling performance in Hamilton Harbour.

However, Bromby's win was bitter-sweet as his qualification into tomorrow's opening round of the Gold Cup came at the expense of compatriot Adam Barboza who will now have to sit and watch the action from onshore.

Bromby remained undefeated yesterday, sailing to successive wins over Barboza in the opening race and American Bill Buckles in the second to book a opening round date with fourth seeded Swede Bjorn Hansen.

“We were fortunate enough today to get the winds we needed, but unfortunately it was at the expense of a fellow Bermudian (Barboza) and fortunately we managed to get through to the next round,” said Bromby.

“The guys are doing a great job and to be quite honest today's result could be attributed to the great job that they are doing.”

Bromby maintains that his chances of doing well in the Gold Cup are as good as everyone else's.

“Hopefully we can go as far as we've ever been before,” added Bromby, whose top Gold Cup finish to date was a place in the quarter-finals of last year's international regatta.

Having finally conquered his nerves, Astwood was ecstatic to have made it through to the opening round of the Cup. The Bermudian advanced from Group One after successive wins over Germany's Tino Elleqast and American Scott Dickson to secure a first round showdown with Finland's sixth seed Steffan Lindberg.

“I was a little nervous first thing in the morning because we were leading the pack for the first two days and I didn't want to blow what we had going for us,” said Astwood.

“We won the first race fairly easily and in the second race we were got off the line behind and we kind of out-tacked Dickson so we really enjoyed that one because we came from behind.”

Ironically, Astwood previously sailed with Dickson's brother Chris in 1989 and attributes his current success to the valuable lessons he learned while sailing alongside the former America's Cup skipper.

“I gained a lot of match racing experience from him (Chris) by just watching how he did things,” added Astwood.

“It's all instilled in the mind. But looking ahead to the names on the cedar boards I know very few. However, we are sailing extremely well and if things keep going the way they currently are then it will be good racing for us and tough racing for the opposition.”

Other unseeded skippers advancing to tomorrow's opening round alongside Bromby and Astwood were Americans Andy Horton and Tucker Thompson and Brits Mason Woodworth and Chris Law.

Just who will fill the remaining two Gold Cup opening round slots will finally be decided today when the women's match racing series concludes with the semi-finals and finals.

The top two female skippers will automatically advance into the opening round.

Denmark's world number four Jes Gram-Hensen is the top seeded skipper in the Gold Cup, Poland's current ISAF Match Racing World Champion Karol Jablonski is seeded second, Denmark's world number three Jesper Radich is third, Sweden's Bjorn Hansen, ranked fourth on the world stage, is fourth and 2001 European Match Racing Champion Mikael Lindqvist is fifth.

Finland's 2001 Nordic Match racing silver and bronze medallist Steffan Lindberg is seeded sixth, Sweden's Mattias Rahm seventh and Denmark's Lars Nordberg eighth.

During yesterday's continuation of the Women's International Match racing in Hamilton Harbour, Lewin continued her quest for one of two the automatic Gold Cup berths in fine fashion, capping off the day with two convincing triumphs over former European Women's Match racing champion Klaartje Zuiderbaan of the Netherlands and current world number two Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen of Denmark.

Her only loss was to top US sailor Deborah Willits during the second race yesterday.

Lewin will see semi-final action today and earns her reward for yesterday's fine performance by getting the opportunity to select her own rival - although who that will be won't be known until after this morning's final skippers' briefing.

“It was good. We managed two wins and one loss and it's been pretty puffy. The breeze was in and out but all in all we are happy with the day,” said Lewin, who has already this year successfully qualified for the 2004 Olympics where she is set to compete in the Yngling one-design class.

Lewin topped the round robin phase of the women's regatta, boasting six wins against one loss.