Hamilton, Bermuda (18 October 2026) Bermuda Gold Cup debutant Christian Hamilton (GBR) and his Khumbu Racing Team of Ian Williams, Richard Sydenham and Jon Gundersen stunned World No 1 Chris Poole (USA) to lift the King Edward VII Trophy on Sunday as champions of the 74th edition of the Bermuda Gold Cup, 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 metres left to sail in the final race as Poole tried desperately to shed a penalty with the score tied at 2-2. But Hamilton showed impressive calmness to avoid falling into Poole’s mark trap to take the last match and join some illustrious names on the oldest match racing trophy in the world.
After the champagne had been opened and the customary jump into the harbour had been made, Hamilton reflected on his remarkable achievement of winning the event on his first attempt.
“This is such an amazing feeling and I’m really proud to lift the Gold Cup, which has so many amazing names on it,” Hamilton said. “I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to do. We’ve been getting better all week and we were able just to pull it off in the end. I’m going to be a marked man from now on. 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 metres of sailing set to live long in the memory of the spectators. “It was weird as when we were 2-1 down we felt we could do it and there was still confidence in the team,” Hamilton said. “The last race was such a tough one. 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 fulfil a long-held ambition and his reward has been a metoric 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 contineus. Emotions were to the fore as he came off the water after letting the lead slip and giving away the final two matches. “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. We gave everyone a good show and we’ll come back next year and keep working on improving. The Bermuda Gold Cup seems like it’s a tough one to get under my belt but all good things take time.”
Poole has been match racing for more than a decade but is not worried that he has a new rival out to take him down from top spot. “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.”
2026 Bermuda Gold Cup – Final Results
- 🇬🇧 Christian Hamilton (GBR) — WS Open Ranking No. 5
- 🇺🇸 Chris Poole (USA) — WS Open Ranking No. 1
- 🇩🇰 Jeppe Borch (DEN) — WS Open Ranking No. 13
- 🇫🇷 Aurélien Pierroz (FRA) — WS Open Ranking No. 9
- 🇸🇪 Oscar Engström (SWE) — WS Open Ranking No. 6
- 🇸🇪 Johnie Berntsson (SWE) — WS Sailing Open Ranking No. 3
- 🇫🇷 Pauline Courtois (FRA) — WS Open Ranking No. 19 / WS Women’s Ranking No. 1
- 🇨🇭 Eric Monnin (SUI) — WS Open Ranking No. 4
- 🇸🇪 Anna Östling (SWE) — WS Open Ranking No. 70 / WS Women’s Ranking No. 2
- 🇸🇪 Martina Carlsson (SWE) — WS Open Ranking No. 53 / WS Women’s Ranking No. 5
- 🇺🇸 Allie Blecher (USA) — WS Open Ranking No. 344 / WS Women’s Ranking No. 9
- 🇦🇺 Tom Picot (AUS) — WS Open Ranking No. 23
World Sailing rankings at 1 July 2026
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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 WMRT is awarded ‘Special Event’ status by the sport’s world governing body – World Sailing – and the winner of the WMRT each year is crowned World Sailing Match Racing World Champion. Since 2000, the World Match Racing Tour and its events have awarded over USD24million in prize money to sailors which has helped to contribute to the career pathway of many of today’s professional sailors. www.wmrt.com