Announcements » Top up Tuesday June week 1 2026

Welcome to your weekly top up of newsbites from me, Charlie Marillier, British Powerlifting’s CEO.

In today’s Newsletter:

• • World Bench Press Championships
  • Coaching Licence and Approved Clubs development

WORLD BENCH PRESS CHAMPIONSHIPS 

What an incredible week it was during the IPF World Classic and Equipped Bench press championships. Whilst we collate all the information to post here next week, I would like to say a special thanks to Scott Simon and Craig Coggle who stepped in at the last moment to take over coaching the Classic Masters team due to the two coaches having to pull out through personal reasons.

Both Scott and Craig worked endlessly each day to ensure every lifter was looked after, the results seemingly seem to speak for themselves for a resounding success and a ton of medals. They were supported by many incredible coaches, including Darren Ball who “put an absolute shift in this week, been here for every session from M4 – Open and has loaded every plate allowing the coaches to support athletes. His contribution can’t be overstated”. Thank you to everyone who pulled together to ensure each Bench Press Athlete had the best support possible.

I will be writing about the lifters next week, when we’ve had some time to ensure we’ve collected as much information as possible as there was such a huge team and so many lifters.

You can, however, find all the results on the IPF results page and see many of the top stories on our Instagram page.

COACHING LICENCE AND APPROVED CLUBS DEVELOPMENT

By The Coaching Committee

We recently hosted a Members’ Forum, in which very positive, forward-thinking, and collaborative discussions took place regarding multiple matters. One of the topics discussed was the further development of the Coaching License for 2027, and we recognise there is also room for further accessibility where possible. The most notable challenges we heard from members surrounded Equipped and University championship events, and we positively discussed solutions to these in the Members’ Forum. We would like to thank everyone who volunteered their time to attend the Forum, and we would like to impress again that positive development comes from collaboration.

We can announce that the Coaching License will include the following for 2027:

• We will be introducing an Approved Clubs Nomination Pathway, whereby a registered Approved Club’s Lead Coach can choose Nominated Coaches on a permanent basis (not championship-by-championship), to assist with coaching at National Series events, without the need for a coaching qualification. Nominated Coaches will still need to hold Safeguarding, Anti-doping, and DEI certifications.
  • Please note, being an Approved Club does NOT require you to own or rent property or premises (i.e., university clubs can become Approved Clubs in the same way as any other club can).
• Outside of an Approved Club setting (i.e., individual coaches not affiliated to a club), the coach will need to hold a Coaching License, which from 1st January 2027, is inclusive of a BP or IPF coaching qualification. The minimum standard is a British Powerlifting Level 1 (Assistant Coach) course.

We recognise that this structure both allows for increased accessibility by keeping the Coaching License as close to its current 2026 iteration, whilst still putting a system in place to tackle the currently existing safeguarding challenges.

The Approved Clubs Nomination Pathway will be delivered via Sport:80 in a very similar way to the current license. Once finalised, an abundance of resources and guidance videos will be published in order to make this process as smooth and as easy as possible for club leads. Whilst the system is being introduced, we welcome any and all constructive feedback where it is seen that the system might run even more efficiently for all.

In the meantime, there are still things you can do to prepare for the 2027 championships:

• If you are the owner or lead of a club, or lead a university club, and it is not yet registered, you can visit the Approved Clubs page to find out more about how to become an Approved Club, or contact Sam Cook, British Powerlifting’s Clubs Lead, to discuss registering your club. There are lots of benefits to becoming an Approved Clubs, such as discounts on competition entry fees for your members, special discounted rates from ELEIKO, and being listed and advertised on our website for prospective members to see.
• Ensure that you begin your journey to meet the criteria, such as that the club has a referee, a safeguarding lead, etc.
• If you are an individual coach or not part of an Approved Club, book onto a British Powerlifting Level 1 (Assistant Coach) course in order to satisfy the Coaching License requirements before 2027

This positive change has been enacted due to the fantastic feedback and constructive two-way discussions we have had together as a community, and progress for the better doesn’t happen unless we maintain this positive two-way communication street. So please keep feeding back to your local divisions, your competition organisers, committee leads, etc., as all feedback is taken onboard to help shape the future of our federation, and ensure the environment works for all.

If you have any questions, please contact us on coaching@britishpowerlifting.org

Thank you,

The Coaching Committee

RECRUITMENT DRIVE

We have some exciting opportunities for Coaches to development their career pathways with recruitment opportunities from two of the International teams:

• • World Equipped Sub-Junior/Junior assistant coach
    • Sun City, South Africa, between August 18 – 20 (inclusive) 2026

• • World Classic Sub-Junior/Junior Coaching staff
    • Sun City, South Africa, between August 18 – 20 (inclusive) 2026

• • Western European Cup Coaching staff
    • Luxembourg, 17 – 20th Sept 2026

Click on the links to find out more and fill in the expression of interest. This provides the Head Coaches and Recruitment manager a chance to see who is interested in the role from which the team will select their staff.

WHAT’S COMING UP:

• British Masters Classic Championships, June 6-7 in Oriam Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

• • Volunteers are needed, if you would like to be part of something great, let us know here

• World Classic Open Championships, June 13-21 in  Druskininkai, Lithuania⁣

Check out all the upcoming championships from British Powerlifting and you can find all the International Competitions from the IPF Calendar.