The Olympic regatta over, the dream they'd worked so hard towards for more than five years shattered, Peter Bromby and Lee White were making no commitment to the future yesterday.

Would they aim for the Sydney Games in 2000? "Can't say,'' replied Bromby.

Would they remain together as a team? "Don't know, yet,'' mused White.

Deeply disappointed, it was as much as they could do to reflect on the events that have transpired over the last eight days and analyse what went wrong. A final placing of 13th after ten Star Class races in a regatta in which, from day one, they never threatened to medal, left much food for thought.

"Yes, I'm upset, '' admitted Bromby. "I realised if we had a great regatta it would give us a shot at a medal. If we had a good regatta we could finish in the top ten. And a bad regatta would be somewhere between 10th and 15th.

That's what we had.

"But we could go out here next week in the same fleet and the results could be completely different. That's sailing, everybody racing here is very capable. We knew that from the start.'' While accepting that the flukey conditions were the same for all, the 31-year-old skipper believes had the wind blown as it did during Monday's final race when he and White virtually match-raced Canadian Ross MacDonald around the course, eventually pipping them on the line for sixth place -- their best finish of the week -- things might have turned out differently.

"Those conditions -- 12 to 14 knots -- are mainly what we practised in, and we did well. But most of the races were in light air. I'm not making excuses, it was exactly the same for everybody.'' White agreed. "Obviously, the script didn't go as planned. We'd hoped for much better.

"And it wasn't really the starts that let us down, it was the flukey conditions that made it difficult. It was different every day.'' If Bromby and White were disappointed, there was also little to celebrate in the Canadian, US, British and Danish camps. All had been expected to challenge but fell short of expectations.

MacDonald and Eric Jespersen finished one spot behind the Bermudians in 14th.

Gold medallists in Barcelona, Mark Reynolds and Hal Haenel of the US, placed eighth, despite six top-five finishes. Denmark's Michael Hestbaek and Martin Heijlsberg were ninth and Glyn Charles and George Skuodas of Great Britain 11th.

Gold went to Brazilians Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira, silver to Hans Wallen and Bobbie Lohse of Sweden and the bronze to Colin Beashel and David Giles of Australia -- no surprises there, although the fourth-placed Greeks, Dimitrios Boukis and Anastassios Bountouris may have raised a few eyebrows.

"We thought with our world ranking (seventh), we had a fair chance to medal,'' explained White. "But there's an awful lot of good sailors here, it was never going to be easy.'' As for the future, 38-year-old White and his skipper remained non-committal.

"We haven't taken any decisions yet,'' said Bromby. "I haven't sat down and talked with Lee yet, but I'd like to think we might carry on as a team.'' White, however, hinted another four-year Olympic campaign could prove too demanding.

"The intention five years ago was to give these Olympics one real good shot, and that's what we did. I can't say we'll split up, but I have to be realistic, I have other commitments. We'll just have to see where we go from here.

"I still want to sail, but with this kind of intensity? I don't know.'' Bermuda at the Olympics YESTERDAY Athletics: Rest day Sailing: Rest day TODAY (All times Bermuda) Athletics: 200m heats, round one: Troy Douglas, heat one, 11.45 a.m.; Round two, 7.15 p.m.

Cycling: Road race (137 miles): Elliot Hubbard, 9.30 a.m.

Sailing: Laser Class: Malcolm Smith, race 11 (final race), 2 p.m.

Europe Dinghy: Paula Lewin, race 11 (final race), 2 p.m.

TOMORROW 200m semi-finals and final: Troy Douglas, times TBA, depending on qualification.