Fate conspired to help top Bermudian sailor Paula Lewin in her quest for World Match Race glory -- but in the end it was her own mistakes that were to cost her dearly.

Yesterday's stage of the women's World Match Racing Championships in St.

Petersburg, Florida, saw competitors complete the final two flights of the quarter-finals that had to be held over from Thursday.

After losing four and winning one on the previous day, Lewin needed to win both of her remaining races to stand a chance of making it to the semi-finals.

But it was not to be.

She and her crew of sister Peta Lewin, Leatrice Roman and Lisa Neasham continued in the losing vein that had begun the previous day -- falling victim to American Betsy Alison during their first outing in Tampa Bay and ending with a similar defeat at the hands of Shirley Robertson of Great Britain.

That pair of results gave Lewin an overall quarter-final record of 1-6, placing her seventh out of the eight competitors, with only the top four in the group going through to the semis.

"We calculated yesterday that if we did win the next two, with a three and four record, we would need certain combinations of other people to win and lose,'' explained Lewin. "It happened, except we didn't win our two although we were winning both races at some point. We are just absolutely gutted, it's such a shame.'' Lewin said she couldn't put her finger on why the event slipped away.

"I really can't specifically say what went wrong. It was just a combination of little errors. The races were never more than a boat-length apart,'' she said, adding, "We have had two long days of close racing and it just didn't go our way. I think the mistakes that we made were definitely things that we could have avoided.'' However, in reflection, Lewin was not totally downcast, believing that they had probably done as well as they could considering the lack of competitive racing the crew had had in the lead-up.

"I think actually when we step back and look at who's here and who didn't even make the top eight, we shouldn't be too upset,'' she said.

"We haven't sailed a tremendous amount this year -- two events, one in June and another one in August. All in all we have sailed five days of racing.

"I think what we should take away from this is that we potentially could have done much better if we had been more seasoned.'' Lewin will now face-off against Katie Spithill of Australia for seventh and eighth in a best of three contest today.

Looking ahead, Lewin said she would have a well-earned rest and then channel her efforts to get match racing reinstated as an Olympic sport.

"We are all going to try and get that through,'' she said. "Depending on that result will determine how aggressively we continue the sport.'' Meanwhile, Robertson, Alison, Sweden's Marie Bjorling and defending champion Dorte Jensen of Denmark made it through to the semi-finals -- two races of which were sailed yesterday. The quartet currently stand at one win each and they will race to a finish today. Racing will begin at 7.30 a.m to enable all the ties to be completed -- weather permitting.