Meet world's best match racing skippers | ​Ian Williams

Editor’s note:

The 2023 World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) Shenzhen•Bao'an Final and World Bay Area Regatta came to a close yesterday. Twelve of the world’s best match racing skippers from nine countries competed in the final. Between intense training and matches, the skippers gave us interviews, talking about their training, their goals and their observations during their visit to Shenzhen.

编者按：

2023世界帆船对抗巡回赛深圳•宝安总决赛暨世界湾区帆船赛于昨日落下帷幕。来自九个国家的12位世界顶级水平的帆船赛事船长和船队参加了这场赛事，给本地居民呈现了一场近距离、高竞技、强对抗，观赏性极强的顶级帆船比赛。在紧张的训练和比赛间隙，12位船长们接受了我们的采访，畅谈赛前训练，比赛目标以及他们在深圳的所见所闻。

Video by Liu Xudong

Ian Williams（伊恩·威廉姆斯）

World Sailing Ranking 世界帆联排名：NO.35

Leaderboard of World Match Racing Tour 世界帆船对抗巡回赛排名: NO.7

Nationality 国籍: Britain 英国

Team 队名: ChinaOne.Ningbo 中国宁波一号

Crew 队员: Jon Gundersen, Richard Sydenham, Gerrard Thomas

A video message from Ian Williams before he comes to Shenzhen.

Ian Williams (born April 26, 1977) is already considered the most successful skipper on the World Match Racing Tour after thus far winning 6 World Championship titles.

He started sailing with an English Channel crossing at the age of 6 months and he has been sailing ever since. Ian started racing in the International Cadet Class in which he was selected to represent the UK at the World Championships in Belgium. Ian rose to the top 10 of the International Sailing Federation's (now World Sailing) match race ranking list in July 2003. In April 2005 Ian left his full time job as a lawyer in London to embark on a career in professional sailing. The increased focus on his sailing helped Ian place secnd overall in the 2004/5 World Match Racing Tour and he won his first WMRT Event (the Argo Group Gold Cup) in 2006. In 2007 he rose to No. 1 in the rankings, and went on to win both the 2007 and 2008 World Match Racing Tours making him at that time one of only five skippers to hold multiple World Match Racing titles and the first European to do so. He went on to win the title again in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015.

Ian has also competed in a diverse range of classes and series, winning fleet racing championship titles in four different keelboat classes and a World Championship in the M32 catamaran, also competing in well-known circuits such as the Audi MedCup, Farr 40 World Championship circuit, Extreme Sailing Series, and M32 Series.

伊恩·威廉姆斯出生于1977年4月26日，曾六次夺得世界帆船对抗巡回赛全球总冠军，被认为是WMRT最成功的船长。

伊恩第一次航海，只有六个月大，当时的他横渡了英吉利海峡，从此开始了持续一生的航海生涯。而伊恩的比赛生涯则开始于国际Cadet帆船级别，并曾代表英国前往比利时参加Cadet级帆船世界锦标赛。2003年7月，伊恩跻身国际帆船联合会（现世界帆联）帆船对抗赛排行榜前十。2005年，原本在伦敦担任律师的伊恩辞掉全职工作，成为一名专业帆船运动员。伊恩在帆船运动投入更多精力之后，在2004/2005年世界帆船对抗巡回赛的总排名上升到第2位。2006年，伊恩夺得雅高集团金杯赛冠军，这是他的职业生涯上首个WMRT赛事冠军。随后，在2007年和2008年，伊恩连续两年赢得WMRT总冠军。当时多次获得WMRT总冠军的船长仅五位，伊恩不仅是其中之一，还是这五位船长中的首位欧洲人。随后在2011年、2012年、2014年和2015年的比赛中，伊恩再次夺得桂冠。

除了WMRT，伊恩也是多个级别赛事和系列赛事中的常见身影。他曾在四项大帆船级别赛事中夺得群发赛冠军，也曾赢得M32双体帆船世界锦标赛冠军。此外，他还曾参加多个著名巡回赛，包括奥迪MedCup帆船巡回赛、Farr 40世界锦标赛巡回赛、世界极限帆船系列赛和M32帆船系列赛。