Bermuda Gold Cup debutant Christian Hamilton stunned World No 1 Chris Poole to lift the King Edward VII trophy today.

After a week featuring more than 100 matches, the identity of the champion was still unknown with ten metres left to sail in the final race as Poole tried desperately to shed a penalty.

But Hamilton showed impressive calmness to avoid falling into Poole’s mark trap to take the final 3-2 and join some illustrious names on the oldest match racing trophy in the world.

After the champagne had been opened and the customary jump into the harbour had been made, Hamilton reflected on the remarkable achievement of winning the event on his first attempt.

“This is such an amazing feeling and I’m really proud to lift the Gold Cup, which has so many amazing names on it,” Hamilton said.

“I’m so proud of what we've been able to do. We’ve been getting better all week and we were able just to pull it off in the end.

“I’m going to be a marked man from now on. To have a final against the top guy in the world and for it to be so close and come out on top, is one of my highlights.”

Hamilton had to do it the hard way, fighting back from 2-1 down in the best-of-five match to take the final two races, with the last few metres of sailing set to live long in the memory of the spectators.

“It was weird as when we were 2-1 down we felt we could do it and there was still confidence in the team,” Hamilton said.

“The last race was such a tough one. We were a penalty up and we were ahead down the final run and then Chris managed to roll over the top of us and get into a position to do a mark trap on the committee boat.

“Ian [Williams, trimmer and tactician] and I both used to do a lot of team racing when we were younger and it was like going back to those instincts and mark traps around team racing. We were basically stopping the boat and trying to go slower than the opposite boat, which is hard when you've got the spinnaker up.”

Hamilton only turned his attention to the tour about 18 months ago to fulfil a long-held ambition and his reward has been a rise up the rankings.

“When I was in my early twenties, I really wanted to get to the top in match racing and I had a really great crew that I sailed with for six years,” Hamilton said.

“But then people got married, there was a bit of a gap and a couple of years ago I had the chance to pull together a great team and retry.

“The crew I’ve got now were interested in doing a campaign for two or three years and we've been able to crack through the events and go for it.”

For the vanquished Poole the quest for a first Bermuda Gold Cup goes on. Emotions were to the fore as he came off the water after letting the lead slip and giving away the final two matches.

“We felt like we were sailing really well and a couple of mistakes here and there ended up biting us,” Poole said.

“But Christian sailed flawlessly when we did make mistakes and at this level that’s just not something you can do so props to him and his crew.

“We gave everyone a good show and we’ll come back next year and keep working on improving. The Bermuda Gold Cup seems like it’s a tough one to get under my belt but all good things take time.”

Poole has been match racing for more than a decade but is not worried that he has a new rival out to take him down from top spot.

“I’m chasing my own objectives and winning this is a big one on there. It wasn’t our year, so we’ll come back next year and see what happens, but this is our sixth podium in a row in the World Tour.

“We're clearly really happy with that but just certain venues need a little more refining to get over the hurdles.”