Past King Edward VII Gold Cup winner, Ian Williams, reaffirmed his status as the world's top match racing skipper in Asia last week where he triumphantly raised the coveted ISAF Match Racing World Championship Trophy for the second straight year.

Competing in the Brett Bakewell-White designed Foundation 36, the 31-year old Englishman finished fourth at the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia and then relied upon other results to go his way en route to the title.

Former laywer Williams (92), who now sails full-time, completed the nine-stage World Match Racing Tour four-points ahead of French runner up Sebastien Col (88).

Col's fellow countryman and 2007 Gold Cup winner, Mathieu Richard, finished third on 77 points.

Three-time World Match Racing Tour champion, Peter Gilmour, won last week's event in Malaysia after defeating Kiwi Adam Minoprio in the final.

Williams, who resides in Hamble, England, now joins an exclusive club of sailors to have captured back-to-back ISAF World Match Racing crowns.

Since the inception of the World Match Racing Tour, only five skippers (Chris Dickson, Russell Coutts, Gilmour, Ed Baird and Williams) have won successive world titles.

However, to date no skipper has managed to win three ISAF World Match Racing titles on the trot – an unprecedented feat Williams and crew plan to gun for next year.

"Nobody has achieved that before and it is something that I will be going for sailing for Bahrain Team Pindar," Williams told The Royal Gazette.

The Englishman managed four podium finishes on the World Match Racing Tour this year, including a first at the Danish Open in Denmark last August.

Williams made history last year by becoming the first British sailor to win the prized World Match Racing Championship.

"The first (world title) is always very special for any sailor. . .but winning for a second time is incredible," he said.

"It was always going to be close, but we always thought we had a shot at defending."

Williams heaped praise on a well-drilled crew he holds in high esteem.

"Bahrain Team Pindar are the best in the world.

"They are a great team," he said.

Williams was officially handed the world title during the season finale in Malaysia when nearest rivals Col and Richard failed to make inroads into his lead at the top of the points standings.

Last October saw Williams and crew finish fifth at the King Edward VII Gold Cup, an event he won two years ago.

The lawyer-turned-sailor went 7-0 in the group stage, but lost 2-3 to Sweden's Mattias Rahm in the quarter-finals.

"We felt we were sailing well but the breaks just did not go our way in the quarter-finals," he said.

"We really felt that if we had got through that round we would have gone all the way and won the competition."