Swedish domination in Bermuda

There were wild scenes of celebration in Bermuda as Sweden topped the field in both open and women’s match racing championships on October 21-26.

Johnie Berntsson made history with a Bermuda Gold Cup hat-trick after beating Great Britain’s Ian Williams 3-0 in a tense final. Additionally, Sweden’s Anna Östling defeated Denmark’s Lea Vogelius in a battle for Scandinavian supremacy in the second edition of the Aspen Women’s Bermuda Match Racing Regatta.

Berntsson, with his team of Björn Lundgren, Herman Andersson and Oscar Angervall, grabbed his own slice of Bermuda Gold Cup history by becoming the only sailor to lift the famous King Edward VII trophy three years in a row since the event switched to the modern format in 1985.

The Swedish skipper is also closing in on Sir Russell Coutts’s record of seven Gold Cup victories, with the defeat of Ian Williams in Hamilton Harbour taking his record to five wins.

“If you had told me 20 years ago that I would win this regatta just once, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Berntsson said. “To now be just behind Sir Russell Coutts, I am over the moon.

“I have been sailing with this team now for three years and I am struggling to describe it. No other Swedes have ever won the Gold Cup and I look at all the other names on the King Edward VII trophy and it’s just such an honor to be on there with them.”

For Östling, she made no secret of her belief that her team would win the Aspen Women’s Match Racing Tour regatta and she came good on her promise. “I had such a good feeling that this would be our week and that we would make it and we’ve done it,” she said.

“We made such good starts, which was something we had struggled with all week and the way we sailed I don’t think anybody would have beaten us. I just have a very good team and we had such good speed in these boats. When you have that speed you can be very relaxed as a skipper and feel like you can do anything.”

This was the fifth and final event of the women’s season, and while only able to finish third in Bermuda, France’s Pauline Courtois picked up her trophy for winning the overall 2025 Women’s World Match Racing Tour championship for the fifth straight year.

“We are delighted to win the world tour again!” she said. “It’s such a big achievement for all the team and we work so hard. That winning feeling always stays the same as it is easier to get to the top than stay there. I’m really proud of this team as we know all the teams want to beat us and we have to work harder each year to be better and better.”

This was the penultimate event for the men’s 2025 season which concludes at the 2025 WMRT Final Shenzhen Baoan in China on January 6-11, 2026.

Men’s tour – Season leaderboard – Bermuda results

Women’s tour – Season leaderboard – Bermuda results

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.

The Women’s World Match Racing Tour was launched in 2022 to continue the hugely successful legacy of the WIM Series (Women’s International Match Racing Series), which began in 2013 to provide a global match racing series for female sailors.