Line-up set for Match Racing World title

The World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) has named 16 skippers for the 2025 World Match Racing Tour Final to be held January 6-11, 2026 in Shenzhen, China. After the 16-stage season, the top competitors will now compete for the Match Racing World Champion title and a share of the USD200,000 prize purse.

Great Britain’s Ian Williams, eight-time world champion and current title defender, returns to Shenzhen in a bid to add a record ninth world title to his career. Invitations were awarded to the 2024 world champion Williams (GBR), and the top ranked WMRT and World Sailing racing match skippers.

The points leader of the WMRT leaderboard going into the final is USA’s Chris Poole, keen to secure his world championship title after a consistent performance in 2025 with a second-place finish at the Congressional Cup in Long Beach, and third place finishes at the Macao Match Cup and Bermuda Gold Cup stages.

“Myself and my Riptide Racing team are fully focused on the winning the world championship this year,” commented Poole. “The lighter and fickle conditions are a challenge in Shenzhen and so our handling boat and crew are going to be keyed to get ahead. We have sailed the Far East 28s a lot now and so know the boats well.”

Joining Williams and Poole in the skipper line-up are Switzerland’s Eric Monnin and the Swedish trio of Johnie Berntsson, fresh from his third consecutive win at the Bermuda Gold Cup last month; Oscar Engström, 25, in competing in his first match racing world; and Björn Hansen, match veteran and ‘Master of Marstrand’ winning after the Swedish stage of the world tour a total seven.

From New Zealand, 2022 match racing world champion Nick Egnot-Johnson, 27, will be back in Shenzhen with his popular ‘Knots Racing’ team the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

From Sydney, Australia, the 2024 Youth Match Racing World Champion and Youth America’s Cup skipper Cole Tapper, 23, will again representing be the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia under his team’s new name ‘Kairos Racing’. He finished 8th at the 2024 WMRT Final in Shenzhen Bao’an.

Denmark’s Jeppe Borch, 28, from Copenhagen returns to Shenzhen after missing the 2024 WMRT Final due to injury. This summer, Borch secured his first win of the Match Cup Sweden tour stage in Marstrand, sailed in the same Far East 28 boats that will also be in Shenzhen.

Completing the skipper line-up are Rocco Attili from Italy, Christian Prendergast from Chicago USA, and no less than five skippers from France – Ian Garreta, Aurélien Pierroz, Timothée Rossi, Tom Foucher, and current Women’s defending Match Racing World Champion, Pauline Courtois and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite team.

Should Courtois win the WMRT Final in Shenzhen, she and her team will be the first to win both the Open and Women’s Match Racing World Championship, and in the same year.

“It will be be our first time in Shenzhen and the level of competition is very high, but we have been working hard this year as a team and it has been one of our long term goals to win the WMRT Final!,” said Courtois.

Tour details – Season leaderboard – Final details

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 Final will be crowned the Match Racing World Champion.

Source: WMRT