The top three skippers in the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) World Match Racing Tour standings have been kept apart in today's quarter-final match-ups of the $100,000 King Edward VII Gold Cup.

Yesterday saw defending Gold Cup champion Mathieu Richard, New Zealand's Adam Minoprio, recently crowned Troia Portugal Match Cup winner Sebastien Col of France, Swede Mattias Rahm and Australian Keith Swinton join the English duo of Ian Williams and Ben Ainslie and Sweden's Johnie Berntsson in the last eight.

Lawyer Williams (98 points) has a slim lead over Col (92 pts) and Richard (87 pts) in the overall ISAF World Match Racing Tour standings with one event (Monsoon Cup in Malaysia) remaining on the 2008 schedule.

So far in this year's Gold Cup event, Williams, a winner here in 2006, and compatriot Ainslie have set Hamilton Harbour ablaze with some excellent seamanship around a course where shifty conditions have kept sailors guessing all week.

Having already booked his spot in the quarters the day before, Williams' wins yesterday over Swede Bjorn Hansen and American Andrew Horton in a make up Group Two match proved no more than a formality. The same was also applicable for Ainslie and Berntsson who also secured passage to the next stage of the regatta on day two.

Ainslie easily saw off the sole woman skipper in this year's Gold Cup, Sally Barkow, while Berntsson got past Frenchman Pierre-Antoine Morvan in a match that amounted to nothing more than practice for today's bigger assignment.

Frenchman Richard beat compatriot Damien Iehl in his final Group One round robin match to avoid having to face off in the repechage and join Ainslie in the final eight, while in Group Three Col got by Aussie Torvar Mirskay to join Berntsson in the quarter-finals.

The same, however, could not be said for Rahm and Swinton who had to take the longer route to the final eight via a repechage where the former beat the likes of Switzerland's Eric Monnin and France's Iehl, who was fourth last week in Portugal, on the way to a perfect 5-0 record yesterday.

Monnin pipped the likes of Aussie Mirsky and American David Perry on a head-to-head tiebreak to progress to the repechage, only to lose to Rahm and Swinton and put paid to any hopes of reaching today's quarter-finals.

Swinton, who collided head-on with Rahm in a pre-race dial-up behind the line, was equally superb during the repechage as he posted an impressive 4-1 record to claim the eighth and final quarter-final berth.

Swede Rahm will now take on the impressive Ainslie in today's first best-of-three quarterfinal series while Swinton will have his work cut out for him against reigning world match race champ Williams who to date has taken everything in stride.

Today's other match-ups will feature Brentsson against defending Gold Cup champion Richard, who has now gone unbeaten in five matches, and Minoprio against world number four and world title contender Col.

Meanwhile, Bermuda's Blythe Walker lost his final Group Three match against American Donald Wilson to bow out with an overall two and five record.

Walker won the Gold Cup petite final in 2006. But there would be no repeat of that outstanding performance this year competing with Team Max crew-mates Somers Kemp, Adam Barboza and Carola Cooper.

"I think our game was slightly off this year," the Bermudian skipper lamented. "The teamwork on the boat was excellent, but I think it was me who hadn't put enough time on the water this year.

"Including the Gold Cup, I think I've only sailed eight or ten days this year which shows when you come down to the really tough situations."

The Gold Cup, the penultimate stage of the World Match Racing Tour, is the oldest match racing competition in the world for one design yachts.

Through the years Bermudian sailors have won the prestigious regatta 21 times, with Gordon Lucas the last local to achieve the feat in 1986.