SWEDISH SWEEP: BERNTSSON AND ÖSTLING VICTORIOUS IN BERMUDA
(Hamilton, Bermuda, 26 October 2025) There were wild scenes of Swedish celebrations in Bermuda on Sunday as Johnie Berntsson made history with a Bermuda Gold Cup hat-trick after beating Great Britain’s Ian Williams 3-0 in a tense final. Sweden’s Anna Östling and her Wings Sailing team defeated Denmark’s Lea Vogelius and her WOW Racing team in a battle for Scandinavian supremacy in the second edition of the Aspen Women’s Bermuda Match Racing Regatta.
Berntsson grabbed his own slice of Bermuda Gold Cup history by becoming the only sailor to lift the famous King Edward VII trophy three years in a row since the event switched to the modern format in 1985.
The Swedish skipper is also closing in on Sir Russell Coutts’s record of seven Gold Cup victories, with the defeat of Ian Williams in Hamilton Harbour on Sunday taking his record to five wins.
Berntsson swept Williams 3-0 in the Gold Cup final, although the races were much closer than the scoreline suggested, and it took some time for him to process his personal milestone. “If you had told me 20 years ago that I would win this regatta just once, I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said. “To now be just behind Sir Russell Coutts, I am over the moon. I have been sailing with this team now for three years and I am struggling to describe it. No other Swedes have ever won the Gold Cup and I look at all the other names on the King Edward VII trophy and it’s just such an honour to be on there with them.”
Berntsson was pushed all the way by Williams, gaining the advantage in the first race after his opponent was handed penalty and coming out on tap of a protracted duel in the last race. “The first race we came from behind and it was just a penalty that gave us the advantage to take that one, so that was lucky for us,” he said. “The second one he hunted us all the way around and it’s never easy when Ian Williams is just behind you. In the last race there was a fight all around the racecourse and he played us so hard. We had dial downs, tack covering, tack to splits and that race had it all. I would love to see it back on video as it was a great race.”
For the vanquished Williams, he was left to rue the small margins in a couple of defeats. “Johnie outsailed us in race two but a couple of races were super tight,” he said. “But in the real tight moments, he just got the hooks he needed when he needed them. That was great work for him and good decision making when he need it.”
In the Aspen Bermuda Women’s Match Race running alongside the Gold Cup, Sweden’s Anna Östling and her Wings Sailing team of Anna Holmdahl, Elisabeth Nilsson, Annika Carlunger and Linnea Wennergren ensured that Abba songs featured highly on the playlist in the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club after a double Swedish success.
Through the week, Östling had made no secret of her belief that her team would win the Aspen Women’s Match Racing Tour regatta and she came good on her promise. “I had such a good feeling that this would be our week and that we would make it and we’ve done it,” she said. “We made such good starts, which was something we had struggled with all week and the way we sailed I don’t think anybody would have beaten us today. I just have a very good team and we had such good speed in these boats. When you have that speed you can be very relaxed as a skipper and feel like you can do anything.”
While only able to finish third in Bermuda, France’s Pauline Courtois picked up her trophy for winning the overall 2025 Women’s World Match Racing Tour championship for the fifth straight year. “We are delighted to win the world tour again!,” she said. “It’s such a big achievement for all the team and we work so hard. That winning feeling always stays the same as it is easier to get to the top than stay there. I’m really proud of this team as we know all the teams want to beat us and we have to work harder each year to be better and better.”
While the Bermuda week brings the 2025 Women’s World Match Racing Tour to a close, the Open World Match Racing Tour now sets its sights on the grand final in Shenzhen China from 6-11 January 2026 where sixteen teams will battle it out for the 2025 Match Racing World Championship title.
See full results for the Bermuda Gold Cup and Aspen Bermuda Women’s Match Race at https://wmrt.com/live-results/ and for the Aspen Bermuda Women’s Match Race at https://womenswmrt.com/live-results/
For an image gallery of the week, see https://photos.app.goo.gl/4AjbANatPpnhwUpn6
2025 ASPEN Bermuda Women’s Match Race Regatta Final Results:
1 - 🇸🇪 Anna Östling, SWE – WINGS – SWE
(Crew Anna Holmdahl, Elisabeth Nilsson, Annika Carlunger, Linnea Wennergren)
2 - 🇩🇰 Lea Vogelius, DEN – WOW Racing
(Crew Joan Hansen, Sille Christensen, Josefine Boel, Louise Ulrikkeholm)
3 - 🇫🇷 Pauline Courtois, FRA – Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team
(Crew Maelenn Lemaitre, Louise Acker, Laurane Mettraux, Claire Pruvot)
4 - 🇺🇸 Nicole Breault, USA – Vela Racing
(Crew Molly Vandemoer, Maggie Bacon, Dana Riley Hayes, Hailey Thompson)
5 - 🇳🇱 Julia Aartsen, NED – Team Out of the Box
(Crew Iris Van Gerrevink, Ismene Usman, Eva Asbeck Brusse, Floortje Hoogstede)
6 - 🇺🇸 Lindsey Baab, USA – Baab Racing
(Crew Kate Shiber, Elena Vandenberg, Sally Mace, Julie Mitchell)
7 - 🇸🇪 Martina Carlsson, SWE – Beyond Racing Team
(Crew Svea Sahlin, Amanda Ljunggren, Hanna Gaskell-Brown, Hedvig Medstrom)
8 - 🇩🇰 Kristine Mauritzen, DEN – Those Seagulls
(Crew Julia Toroi, Christina Andersen, Sophia Jorgensen, Sofie Slotsgaard)
2025 Bermuda Gold Cup Final Results:
1 - 🇸🇪 Johnie Berntsson, Berntsson Sailing Team
2 - 🇬🇧 Ian Williams, Pindar by Manuport Logistics
3 - 🇺🇸 Chris Poole, Riptide Racing
4 - 🇨🇭 Eric Monnin, Capvis Swiss Match Racing
5 - 🇳🇿 Nick Egnot-Johnson, Knots Racing
6 - 🇫🇷 Ian Garreta, Med Racing
7 - 🇨🇦 Peter Wickwire, Storm Racing
8 - 🇫🇷 Timotheë Rossi, Sudistes Sailing Team
ABOUT BERMUDA GOLD CUP
The Bermuda Gold Cup, a World Championship event of the World Match Racing Tour, is one of the world’s most storied match race regattas. The trophy, the King Edward VII Gold Cup, was first awarded by King Edward VII at the 1907 Tri-Centenary Regatta in Virginia. First raced as a match race regatta in1937, the King Edward VII Gold Cup is the oldest match racing trophy in the world for competition in one-design yachts and is the only King’s Cup ever to be offered for competition in the United States, which could be won outright. The winner’s list includes the most prominent names in international sailing, including America’s Cup winners Sir Russell Coutts (the event’s all-time winner with seven championships) of New Zealand and James Spithill of Australia, as well as luminaries such as Sir Ben Ainslie(Great Britain), Taylor Canfield (USA), Chris Dickson (New Zealand), Peter Gilmour (Australia) and Ian Williams (Great Britain). www.bermudagoldcup.com
For More Information
Nicole Butterworth, Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Sailing Office, sailing@rbyc.bm
James Pleasance, World Match Racing Tour, info@wmrt.com
Visit the Bermuda Gold Cup and Women’s World Match Racing Tour websites for more information.
For live results, follow https://womenswmrt.com/live-results/
For enquiries, contact info@wmrt.com
For more updates and information on the Women’s World Match Racing Tour and event documents, visit womenswmrt.com and follow us on social media at Facebook (@womenswmrt), Instagram(@womenswmrt) and X (Twitter) (@womenswmrt)
Women’s World Match Racing Tour 2025 Schedule:
Stage 1 Casa Vela Cup, San Francisco USA, 28-31 May
Stage 2 Santa Maria Cup, Annapolis USA, 4-7 June
Stage 4. Nordea Women’s Trophy – Match Cup Sweden, Marstrand, 30 June – 5 July
Stage 5. Women’s Match Racing World Championship, Chicago, 17-20 September
Stage 6. Bermuda Women’s Match Race, Bermuda, 21-26 October
*Dates listed race days only
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
womenswmrt.com
