High stakes at Match Race Finals

The stage is set for the 2023 World Match Racing Tour Final in Shenzhen, China. The stakes are high as the winner of this event will be crowned 2023 Match Racing World Champion and be awarded a portion of the USD 200,000 purse. Racing will run from December 13 to 17.

Overseen by Principal Race Officer Randy Smith from the USA and Chief Umpire Craig Mitchell from GBR and his team of ten World Sailing International Umpires, the event will see top-tier competition.

The regatta line-up is full of veteran match racers and previous world champions. New Zealand’s Nick Egnot-Johnson’s KNOTS Racing is defending their 2022 WMRT championship title, while USA’s Chris Poole and his Riptide Racing, who is currently ranked number one in the world and on top of the WMRT leaderboard, aims for the prize with a sense of redemption after finishing second in last year’s WMRT Final in Sydney, Australia.

Six-time match racing world champion Ian Williams / Chinaone.Ningbo (GBR) will eagerly look to take home his seventh world championship title at the end of this week.

Being the second time the WMRT Final has been hosted in China, and the first time at this venue, it will be crucial for crews to learn the venue’s characteristics as quickly as possible.

“Sailing is one of those cool sports that takes you all over the world; none of us have raced in Shenzhen before, so we are looking forward to racing in a new venue and experiencing the Shenzhen culture,” commented Nick Egnot-Johnson.

The day one forecast will ease the teams into the week of racing with an easterly breeze from 6-12 knots.

Tour information – Event details – Results – Facebook

World Match Racing Tour Final 2023 – Provisional Crew List
• Chris Poole (34, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA)/ Riptide Racing
World No. 1 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Joachim Aschenbrenner, Tomas Dietrich, Bernardo Freitas

• Jeppe Borch (25, Copenhagen, Denmark)/ Borch Racing
World No. 2 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Thor Malthe Andersen, Mathias Rossing, Gustav Wantzin

• Eric Monnin (47, Immensee, Switzerland)/ Capvis Swiss Match Racing Team
World No. 3 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Simon Brügger, Marc Monnin, Jean-Claude Monnin, Hugo Feydit

• Johnie Berntsson (52, Stenungsund, Sweden)/ Berntsson Sailing Team
World No. 4 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Filip Karlsson, Emil Wolfgang, Rasmus Alnebäck

• Mati Sepp (55, Tallinn, Estonia)/ Clean Energy Match Race
World No. 5 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Karl Kolk, Janno Hool, Ago Rebane

• Nick Egnot-Johnson (25, Auckland, New Zealand)/ KNOTS Racing
World No. 8 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Sam Barnett, Bradley McLaughlin, Zak Merton

• Rocco Attilli (26, Rome, Italy)/ RBYC
World No. 9 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Giulio Tamburini, Gianluca Perasole, Ludovico Mori

• Megan Thomson (25, Auckland, New Zealand)/ 2.0 Racing
World No. 15 Open Match Race Rankings, No. 4 Women’s Match Race Rankings
Crew: Leo Takahashi, Nicholas Heiner, Niall Malone

• Björn Hansen (56, Gothenburg, Sweden)
World No. 30 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Philip Kai Guhle, Mathias Bredin, Nils Bjerås

• Ian Williams (46, Lymington, England)/ Chinaone.Ningbo
World No. 36 Open Match Race Rankings
Six-time Open Match Racing World Champion (2007, ’08, ’11, ’12, ’14, ’15)
Crew: Jon Gundersen, Richard Sydenham, Gerrard Thomas

• Ruairi Finnegan (27, Co. Waterford, Ireland)/ Craic’n Racing
World No. 37 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Noah Fisher, Daniel Little, Ryan Fitzgerald

• Gavin Brady (49, Auckland, New Zealand)/ True Blue Racing USA
World No. 39 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Chris Cullen, Tom Powrie, Dave Sweet

Founded in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) promotes the sport of match racing around the world and is the longest running global professional series in the sport of sailing. The winner of the WMRT each year is crowned World Sailing Match Racing World Champion.

Previous champions include Sir Ben Ainslie (GBR), Taylor Canfield (USA), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Magnus Holmberg (SWE), Peter Holmberg (ISV), Adam Minoprio (NZL), Torvar Mirsky (AUS), Bertrand Pace (FRA), Jesper Radich (DEN), Phil Robertson (NZL), and Ian Williams (GBR).

Since inception, the World Match Racing Tour and its events have awarded over USD23million in prize money to sailors which has helped to contribute to the career pathway of many of today’s professional sailors.