Megan Thomson finishes fifth at Women's Match Racing World Championship

Megan Thomson and her 2.0 Racing crew have finished fifth at the 2026 Women's Match Racing World Championship in San Francisco, bowing out to eventual champion Pauline Courtois before winning both available placing races.

Thomson sailed with Kai Brennan, Maddie Rist and Tinka Visser, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

The championship followed a busy September, taking Thomson from ocean racing to international fleet racing before returning to match racing.

She co-skippered Conrad Colman’s MSIG Europe in The Ocean Race Atlantic. The predominantly Kiwi crew finished sixth on 12 September.

Three days later, she was competing at the inaugural New York Yacht Club Women’s International Championship in Newport, Rhode Island. Thomson skippered the RNZYS crew in IC37 keelboats against 19 other teams. They finished 14th, recording their best result, sixth, in the final race.

San Francisco brought another change of boat and format, returning Thomson to match racing aboard the smaller J/22. St Francis Yacht Club hosted the 12 team championship, with racing from 1 to 4 October. The Kiwis advanced through the round robin before losing their quarterfinal 3–0 to Courtois’s Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team. The French crew would finish with 19 wins from 20 matches and a sixth consecutive world title.

In the placing round, Thomson's team defeated host club skipper Lindsey Baab—who had topped the round robin—and then Sweden's Anna Östling to secure fifth place. Each placing match was a single race, leaving no room for recovery.

The championship brought demanding conditions on San Francisco Bay. Opening day delivered around 20 knots, but lighter winds and morning postponements on three of four days forced crews to wait ashore. When racing resumed, the Bay's currents remained a significant factor even with reduced breeze.

"There were no easy races and no clear gaps in performance," said race director Felix Weidling of St Francis Yacht Club.

Local sailor Nicole Breault, who reached the final before losing to Courtois, described conditions requiring constant attention to eddies, gyres and upwelling water.

Thomson, a former world No. 1, will have another opportunity on home waters. The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron will host the 2027 championship in Auckland from 22 to 26 November. Thomson finished third when RNZYS last hosted the Women's Match Racing World Championship in 2022.

The round robin win count is omitted because the published results tables conflict.