Ian Williams Retains his World Match Racing Crown

Ian Williams and Bahrain Team Pindar retain their World Match Racing Title. Image copyright Sander van der Borch.

by Tracey Johnstone

Ian Williams of Bahrain Team Pindar, match racing skipper extraordinaire, has retained his world title taking out the 2008 ISAF Match Racing World Championship trophy.

Williams led the championship point score with 92 points going into the final event of the World Match Racing Tour. His nearest rivals for the title, Sébastien Col and Mathieu Richard, had to make it to through the quarter finals of the Monsoon Cup to stay in the hunt for the championship trophy.


World Champions: Bahrain Team Pindar. Image copyright Sander van der Borch.

Both Col and Richard were knocked out of the quarter finals leaving the pathway open for Williams to storm through and hold onto the coveted World Championship trophy.

In the final event of the Tour, the 2008 Monsoon Cup, Williams was effectively handed the World Championship title after Col lost his last quarter final match against Peter Gilmour after a technical protest.


Ian Williams (centre) and from left Mark Nichols, Gerry Mitchell, Richard Sydenham and Simon Shaw retain their World Match Racing Championship title at the Monsoon Cup 2008. Image copyright Gareth Cooke/Subzero Images.

“It was a strange to win on a protest decision that didn’t involve us, but I really felt we deserved it, The way we sailed today, we deserved to win. Mathieu (Richard) sailed really well against us and we just didn’t give him any chances. To beat him 3-0 is unprecedented.

“We are really satisfied with the way we performed when the pressure came on. When it came to the quarter finals, Mathieu threw down the gauntlet by choosing us and we responded extremely well and stepped up our game.”

With the Monsoon Cup still at stake nothing could stop the best international match racers in their quest to win their quarter final matches to secure one of the four semi-final berths.


Bahrain Team Pindar at the 2008 Monsoon Cup. Image copyright Sander van der Borch.

The Monsoon Cup is the final event in the World Match Racing Tour and was the deciding event in the 2008 ISAF World Match Racing Championship.

The eight teams contesting the quarter final stage had to battle heavy monsoon downpours, strong river current and gusty 15 to 20 knot winds.

Through to the semi finals are Torvar Mirsky and his Mirsky Racing Team, World Champion Ian Williams and his Bahrain Team Pindar, Adam Minoprio and his ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing and Peter Gilmour’s Yanmar Racing.

Round Robin winner Italian Paolo Cian (Team Shosholoza) was up against 23-year-old kiwi Adam Minoprio. It took four matches for Minoprio to shake off the event leader.

“Fantastic result. To get picked again after the round robin; last year we missed out on the semi-finals finishing 2-3 to Gilmour and this year we beat Cian 3-1, we are stoked. We had our time on distance really sorted and we were feeling very comfortable in the boat. We managed to win every start.

“In the first race (they lost to Cian) we mucked up the tactics on the beat and then in the rest of the races we sorted it out,” Minoprio said.

Veteran match racing circuit skipper, Sweden’s Magnus Holmberg (Victory Challenge), team went up against Australian Torvar Mirsky. Mirsky dominated each of their three matches, the last one showing just why Mirsky is at the top of the international rankings as he drove home his advantage to beat Holmberg by over four boat lengths.

“We convincingly beat Magnus. He is such a big name in the sport. It feels like all of our hard work and all of our experience, and all the practice we have had this year is finally paying off at the best and biggest event. We are really happy with how we are going,” Mirsky said.

Mathieu Richard (French Match Racing Team/Team French Spirit), who held third place on the world match racing championship score board going into the Monsoon Cup, was up against defending Monsoon Cup champion Ian Williams. Williams came out of the start line in each of their matches with incredible aggression. And was on fire winning three straight matches and qualifying for the semi-final stage.

“I don’t think we have ever beaten Richard 3-0 in a best of five before. We have had so many close races over the years. To come out 3-0; we are really pleased with how we performed,” Williams said.

Dato’ Peter Gilmour faced Sébastien Col (French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge) in his quarter final bout. Col going into the Monsoon Cup was second on the World Match Racing Tour scoreboard. In the first match Gilmour made the fatal mistake, for the second time in this event, drifting into the line of the race committee boat and collecting the anchor line. This closed him out of the first match.

He rebounded in the second, lost out in the third, fought back again in the fourth, and then again in the fifth sailing a tactically clever final race, hunting Col down to the last second. Col was awarded the win over the finish line but after a controversial jury decision the race was awarded to Gilmour. Sebastien’s hopes of gaining the World Championship title were snatched away in a hearing rather than on the water. “I did not agree with decision however I will discuss this further with the umpires and learn from it” said Col.

Semi-Finals resume tomorrow with Ian William’s leading Adam Minoprio 2-0 and Peter Gilmour leading Torvar Mirsky 1-0.

World Match Racing Tour