Débutant wins 74th Bermuda Gold Cup

In his first trip to the rock, Christian Hamilton (GBR) and his stacked crew of Ian Williams, Richard Sydenham, and Jon Gundersen topped World No 1 Chris Poole (USA) to win the 2026 Bermuda Gold Cup on October 13-18, the penultimate stage of the 2026 World Match Racing Tour.

After a week featuring more than 100 matches, the identity of the champion was still unknown with ten meters left to sail in the final race as Poole tried desperately to shed a penalty with the score tied at 2-2. But Hamilton avoided falling into Poole’s mark trap to take the last match and join illustrious names on the oldest match racing trophy in the world.

“I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to do,” noted Hamilton. “We’ve been getting better all week and we were able just to pull it off in the end. To have a final against the top guy in the world, and for it to be so close and come out on top, is one of my highlights.”

Hamilton had to do it the hard way, fighting back from 2-1 down in the best-of-five match to take the final two races, with the last few meters of sailing set to live long in the memory of the spectators.

“The last race was such a tough one,” added Hamilton. “We were a penalty up and we were ahead down the final run and then Chris managed to roll over the top of us and get into a position to do a mark trap on the committee boat.

“Ian [Williams, trimmer and tactician] and I both used to do a lot of team racing when we were younger and it was like going back to those instincts and mark traps. We were basically stopping and trying to go slower than the opposite boat, which is hard when you’ve got the spinnaker up.”

Hamilton only turned his attention to the tour about 18 months ago to fulfill a long-held ambition and his reward has been a meteoric rise up the rankings.

“When I was in my early twenties, I really wanted to get to the top in match racing and I had a really great crew that I sailed with for six years,” Hamilton said.

“But then people got married, there was a bit of a gap and a couple of years ago I had the chance to pull together a great team and retry. The crew I’ve got now were interested in doing a campaign for two or three years and we’ve been able to crack through the events and go for it.”

For the vanquished Poole, the quest for a first Bermuda Gold Cup continues. “We felt like we were sailing really well and a couple of mistakes here and there ended up biting us,” Poole said. “But Christian really sailed flawlessly when we did make mistakes and at this level that’s just not something you can do so props to him and his crew.

“I’m chasing my own objectives and winning this is a big one on there. It wasn’t our year, so we’ll come back next year and see what happens but this is our sixth podium in a row in the World Tour. We’re clearly really happy with that but just certain venues need a little more refining to get over the hurdles.”

Bermuda results: https://www.matchracingresults.com/2026/bermuda-gold-cup
Tour details: https://wmrt.com

Founded in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour 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 the Match Racing World Champion.

Source: WMRT