London (14th December 2021) – The World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) today announced its 2022 world championship season with a 19 event schedule across 12 countries including new World Tour level events in Puerto Rico and Italy. 2022 will mark the 22nd consecutive season of WMRT, the longest running professional series in sailing awarded ‘Special Event’ status by World Sailing.
The 2022 WMRT season will comprise of ‘World Tour’ events and ‘World Championship’ events, opening with the iconic Ficker Cup and the 57th edition of the Congressional Cup hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club in California, USA.
All events are organised under World Sailing rules as Open match racing events, allowing both men and women skippers, as well as mixed teams to compete. ‘World Championship’ level events award higher points to the WMRT leader-board, and prize money of at least USD75,000.
Joining the 2022 season are two new World Tour events, the inaugural Island Match Cup in Puerto Rico (24-29 May), and the OM International Ledro Match Race (16-19 June), founded in 2009 by the Associazone Vela Lago di Ledro on Lake Ledro, Italy. Long standing tour events Match Race Germany, Match Cup Marstrand and the Bermuda Gold Cup join the line-up for 2022 as well as the US Grand Slam match racing events in Chicago, Detroit and Oyster Bay, NY.
The WMRT 2022 Finals will be staged in Shenzhen, China at the Shenzhen Bao’an Match Cup, 6-11 December with a prize purse of USD200,000. The 2021 WMRT Finals, scheduled to take place this month in Shenzhen, was earlier postponed to 15-20 March, 2022 due to current border and quarantine restrictions in China.
“The last 18 months have certainly been challenging for many international sports events” commented WMRT Executive Director James Pleasance. “However, we are excited to announce a full schedule of events for 2022 and we look forward to seeing world class match racing back on Tour next year.”
The 2022 WMRT championship format will be announced in the coming weeks.
For news updates on WMRT, follow at wmrt.com and on Facebook (@worldmatchracingtour), Instagram (@worldmatchracingtour) and Twitter (@worldmrt)
2022 World Match Racing Tour Schedule
- Ficker Cup, Long Beach, CA, USA, 13 – 16 April
- *Congressional Cup, Long Beach, CA, 18 – 23 April
- Szczecin Match Race, Poland, 28 April – 1 May
- Porto Montenegro Match Race, 6 – 8 May
- NJK Open Spring Cup, Finland, 20 – 22 May
- Island Match Cup, Puerto Rico, 24 – 29 May
- Match Race Germany, 2 – 6 June
- GKSS Spring Cup Sweden, 4 – 5 June
- OM International Ledro Match Race, 16 – 19 June
- *GKSS Match Cup Marstrand, 4 – 9 July
- Chicago Grand Slam, USA, 12 – 14 August
- International Match Race for the Detroit Cup, USA, 18 – 21 August
- Oakcliff International, Oyster Bay NY, USA, 25 – 29 August
- Thompson Cup, Oyster Bay NY, USA, 30 August – 3 September
- Baltic Match Race, Estonia, 7 – 11 September
- DBS Marina Bay Cup, Singapore, 30 September – 3 October
- Polish Open, Szczecin, Poland, 7-9 October
- *Bermuda Gold Cup, 17 – 22 October
- *Shenzhen Bao’an Match Cup: WMRT Finals 2022, 6-11 December
*World Championship (WC) Events
About the 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. Previous champions include Sir Ben Ainslie (GBR), Taylor Canfield (USA), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Magnus Holmberg (SWE), Peter Holmberg (ISV), Adam Minoprio (NZL), Torvar Mirsky (AUS), Bertrand Pace (FRA), Jesper Radich (DEN), Phil Robertson (NZL) and Ian Williams (GBR). Since 2000, the World Match Racing Tour and its events have awarded over USD23million in prize money to sailors which has helped to contribute to the career pathway of many of today’s professional sailors. www.wmrt.com
