Seoul Sailing: Korean Match Cup's unlikely winner

Bjorn Hansen in action at the 2011 Korean Match Cup. Photo / Sub Zero Images

The 2011 Korean Match Cup could hardly have produced a more unlikely champion that Bjorn Hansen.

It was a reminder that sometimes in sport the glory does go to the everyman, to the man normally far from the limelight.

The affable Swede doesn't fit the mould of a typical helmsman. He is slightly rotund, with his crew joking that he failed to shed the agreed amount of pounds over summer. Hansen runs an essentially amateur team, and last year used 19 crew members (most teams have the same core of four and five) over the course of the season. He considered giving up the sport last September, with his ex-wife asking "when he would stop playing these sailing games."

At the Korea Match Cup he had lived on a knife edge all week, one more loss in the round robin (and he came within a whisker of losing to New Zealand's Phil Robertson on the final day) and he would have missed the quarter-finals.

Then by his own admission he was slightly fortunate in the epic quarter final against Matheiu Richard, where he was behind in most of the seven matches that were abandoned before finally winning a decider.

The Swede was still seen as the soft touch, and Ian Williams, who was ranked top and had his choice of semi-final opponents, was quick to plump for Hansen.

The Swede then swept Ian Williams 3-0, after the Englishman had been almost untouchable in winning the round robin series. Still no many believed and few gave him a hope against Italian hotshot Francesco Bruni but the Scandinavian dominated the final (3-1) to take the title.

At 44-years-old he hopes this victory (only his second on the WMRT following his 2006 triumph in Sweden) will be the springboard to a great season.

He admitted his self belief was down coming into the event, but after a solid first day his team grew in confidence across the week. They celebrated long into the night and were popular winners, taking the time to oblige every photo and autograph request from delighted local fans.

His team have battled jet lag all week - with fractured sleep most nights - and Hansen proposed this could form part of a new strategy.

"Don't tell them yet - but for the next event (in Portugal) I am going to fly them in via the USA" he joked in the final press conference.

Michael Burgess travelled to Korea with the assistance of the World Match Racing Tour.