Hamilton, Bermuda (16 October 2026) The big fish in the Bermuda Gold Cup repechage pond all made it through to the quarter-finals on day three of competition in Hamilton Harbour. Chris Poole (USA), Johnnie Berntsson (SWE), Pauline Courtois (FRA) and Eric Monnin (SUI) progressed into the final eight via the repechage round, joining Christian Hamilton (GBR), Aurelien Pierroz (FRA), Oscar Engstrom (SWE) and Jeppe Borch (DEN), who qualified directly from the round-robin stages.
Poole faced pressure heading into the last two flights, requiring victories to secure his knockout match spot. Wins against Martina Carlsson (SWE) and Allison Blecher (USA) secured his place.
“We knew we had to win some matches and we won our first two but Pauline got the better of us in race three,” Poole said. “We didn’t have our phones, so we weren’t really keeping tabs on the score, but we just needed to go out, sail well, work on the things we needed to work on and we knew the rest would come together.”
Sweden’s Johnie Berntsson was the only unbeaten sailor on the final day of the repechage, winning all five of his matches to top the standings. It was a remarkable turnaround for the five-time champion, who lost his first three races of the regatta but used the extra time in the boat to refine their approach.
“Having the third day in the regatta helps and our momentum is going up,” Berntsson said. “We’re doing less mistakes and the team has been growing together. The conditions today were a little more stable and the shifts were more predictable, which I think favoured us. We managed to pull off some good starts.”
Pauline Courtois, the six-time women match racing world champion, was the only female skipper to reach the final eight, facing a winner-takes-all match against Anna Östling from Sweden. Courtois described the race as very close.
“It was very close, like every time with Anna,” Courtois said. “I think we can still improve our technique level but we were happy with our sailing today.”
See full results at https://wmrt.com/live-results/
For more information, www.bermudagoldcup.com and www.wmrt.com
#worldmatchracingtour #BermudaGoldCup
ABOUT WORLD MATCH RACING TOUR: Founded in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour promotes the sport of match racing globally and is the longest-running professional series in sailing. The WMRT is awarded ‘Special Event’ status by World Sailing, and the winner is crowned World Sailing Match Racing World Champion.
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