Saturday.

Performing in front of more than 5,000 spectators at the Coleman Coliseum in Houston, Texas, Bermuda finished seventh out of 15 teams in the Pan American Invitational.

The top six teams -- United States, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Venezuela and Guatemala -- were awarded medals, leaving the four-girl Bermuda squad just 0.8 points shy of a souvenir to bring home.

At the half-way mark, the team of Leila Wadson, Laura Murphy, Christina White and Sasha Christensen were in fourth spot before slipping back.

Ten-year-old Maria Darby was the team's alternate, while a recent knee injury meant Nakia Manders could not make the trip.

The team will train under the US National team staff at former Olympic coach Bela Karolyi's Texas ranch this week. Other teams involved in the meet and training include Honduras, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Barbados.

"This meet and training programme was to be a learning experience and help us judge where we were on an international basis,'' said Bermuda national coach Walid Mustafa. "So to be in a position to medal and miss so closely was a little disappointing ... In fact, the US national coaches were surprised at our level of competitiveness (coming) from such a small place.'' Individual results were not available yesterday.

Mustafa said the team had met many gymnasts and officials willing to aid the fledgling Bermuda programme. American Olympic gold medallist Dominique Moceanu, he said, was interested in coming to Bermuda as was the US national team, perhaps as early as this summer.

And a number of US coaches and the Canadian national team had extended invitations to train with them, he added.

"Both the gymnasts and myself are looking forward to improving our skills and training. Our trip has been truly fabulous to date.'' The team return on Friday.