Marstrand, Sweden (4 July 2025) – With just one day to go at the 2025 GKSS Match Cup Sweden and Nordea Women’s Trophy, the stage is set for a thrilling finale in both the Open and Women’s classes. Seven-time winner of the event Björn ‘Master of Marstrand’ Hansen once again showed his teams experience to secure their spot in tomorrow’s final, defeating Oscar Engström 3-1 in a tense semi-final. Denmark’s Jeppe Borch joins Hansen in the final after winning over local favourite Johnie Berntsson 3-2 in their semi-final match. In the Nordea Women’s Trophy, women’s match racing world champion Pauline Courtois/ Match in Pink from France leads Sweden’s Martina Carlsson/ Beyond Sailing Team 2-0 in the first-to-three points match. Defending champion Anna Östling/ Wings Sailing are levelled 1-1 against Dutch team Out of the Box led by skipper Julia Aartsen. The remaining women’s class semi-final matches will be completed tomorrow.
Despite a brief break in racing for a passing thunderstorm with lightning, it was all action on the Marstrand fjord as the semi-final matches got underway in the Open and Women’s classes of the 31st edition of GKSS Match Cup Sweden, world championship stage of the 2025 World Match Racing Tour.
In a clash of Swedish match racing generations, seven-time winner of the Marstrand event Bjorn Hansen, 58/ Hansen Sailing Team was paired against 24-year-old Youth Swedish America’s Cup youth skipper Oscar Engström and his Team Liros. While Engström and his young team of Rasmus Alnebeck, Emil Wolfgang and Filip Karlsson were agile in their handling of the Far East 28 boats, Hansen and his long-term crew of Nils Bjerkås, Oskar Ljung, Mathias Bredin proved once again they are no strangers to the tactical nuances of match racing over the last 20 years, and defeated Engström 3-1 to punch their ticket to another Marstrand final.
In the second pairing, Dane Jeppe Borch, returning to the World Match Racing Tour after recovering from injury, was back in business today with his team hungry to clinch their first Marstrand crown. Borch and crew fought hard to defeat local favourite Johnie Berntsson 3-2 in a close five match duel.
In the Nordea Women’s Trophy, the semi-final matchups were delivering just as much drama. Top-ranked French skipper Pauline Courtois and her Match in Pink Normandy Elite Team have taken a commanding 2-0 lead over Sweden’s Martina Carlsson/ Beyond Sailing Team in their first-to-three points match.
The second women’s semi-final is poised on a knife’s edge, with Sweden’s Anna Östling and her Wings Sailing team locked 1-1 against the ever-improving Dutch crew Team Out of the Box, led by Julia Aartsen.
Despite a rain front forecast to move across Western Sweden tomorrow, spectators are expected to line the cliffs of Marstrand for Saturday’s finals in what promises to be a thrilling showdown for the finals of this iconic event.
For more information and live updates, visit: www.matchcupsweden.com
For full results, follow
GKSS Match Cup Sweden https://wmrt.com/live-results/
Nordea Women’s Trophy https://womenswmrt.com/live-results/
ABOUT WORLD MATCH RACING TOUR
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
ABOUT WOMEN’S WORLD MATCH RACING TOUR
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) providing a global match racing series for female sailors. The name of the series was re-launched as the Women’s World Match Racing Tour with its continued mission to expand and strengthen global match racing and promote opportunities for competitive women’s sailing at every level. The Women’s World Match Racing Tour is the world’s first and only professional sailing series for women providing a valuable pathway for aspiring female world champions in the sport of sailing. womenswmrt.com