Announcements » Top up Tuesday May week 3 2026

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

In today’s Newsletter:

• • British Sub-Juniors/Juniors 
  • Equipped Powerlifting taster sessions
  • Successful Cat 1 IPF referee
  • Recruitment drive: Western European and Equipped Junior Worlds Coaching staff adverts
  • What’s coming up in British Powerlifting competitions

BRITISH SUB-JUNIORS AND JUNIORS CLASSIC CHAMPIONSHIPS 

What a weekend we all had at Surrey Sports Park! 4 days of Sub-Junior and Junior Classic Powerlifting was incredible. The lifting, the platforms, the showcase, the venue, the coaches, the volunteers, the referees, the lot!

I believe it was one of the most impressive and enjoyable British Championships I’ve ever attended.

There are some big thanks to be said to a lot of people, no doubt I’ll be missing out on some, but here goes:

• Competition promoter: Al Manson-Row.
  • She is the person behind the event, the organising, the Instagram page, the thoughtful thank you’s to some key volunteers on the digital screen and to so many young lifters having the most incredible experience.
• Competition second in command: Adam Reilly. 
  • Adam is always in support of every competition and after his successful hosting of the British Classic Bench Press championships in February, Adam stepped in to support Al and the team to deliver this including putting together the two new Eleiko competition sets.
• Tech team
  • James Kemmery was the most fantastic support to the competition, ensuring the technology worked for the competition and the amazing displays behind each platform 
• Spotting and loading team
  • There were some real troopers in the spotting and loading teams, including Tomos Atkinson, Nafis Mahboob, James Tapner as well as many of the lifters who helped either before or after they had competed! Seeing these young people dedicate their time to supporting the event showed me the future of the sport is in good hands.
• MC’s: Jan Hlubucek and Jonathon Peebles (JP)
• Table crew: all the volunteers who spent hours ensuring every lift was diligently recorded correctly and the screens ran perfectly
• Championship Secretary: Kim Cowell
  • Whenever anyone needs to know anything, there’s one oracle we turn to.
• Communication and media teams: Lukas Kasamov, White Lights Media along with the dedicated commentators looking to provide an exciting experience online to match that in person atmosphere
• Set up and Tear Down: Tomos Atkinson , Claire Hendy, Max Heyburn, Andy Rowe, Craig Wilkin, Louis Amorosa, Jonathan Peebles, Liam Peck (after he had finished competing as well!)
  • a 2 platform, multiroom event takes hours to set up and then take down. The team mentioned here, plus volunteers and more, worked tirelessly to ensure the event was ready on time and was ready to hand back to Surrey Sports park in the same condition they received it.
• British Powerlifting Partners Eleiko and SBD

As Al Manson-Rowe put it, “And every single volunteer, loader, referee, coach, spotter, commentator and helper who put in an absolute shift across all 4 days — thank you. This comp only happens because of people willing to give their time to the sport.”

I would also like to congratulate all the lifters, there were some incredible feats of strength, both physical, psychological and emotional. The full results will be up on the Competition Results page in the coming few days but you can find highlights on the British Powerlifting Instagram page

There is so much more you can find about the competition on the Instagram page

If you would like to volunteer at a Nationals 2026 competition, our next event is the British Masters championships,  June 6-7 in Oriam Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Volunteer FAQ’s

Volunteer Form

Equipped powerlifting taster sessions

By Jacob Wymer

Next month, we will be hosting our first British Powerlifting Equipped Taster Sessions.

• Next Level Barbell Club – 4pm Saturday 6th June – Hosted by Kate Sweatman
• Stalybridge Powerlifting Club – 12pm Sunday 21st June – Hosted by Jacob Wymer and Kim Cowell

These will be a great opportunity for newcomers to try out equipped lifting for the first time alongside experienced coaches and lifters.

While these are primarily aimed at those newer to equipped lifting, we also welcome those already in equipment that perhaps want to learn more and get some additional help.

Please register your attendance via the link

Or feel free to reach out to Kate (Katrina.Sweatman@britishpowerlifting.org) or Jacob (jacobwymer@hotmail.co.uk) if you have any questions prior.

KIMBERLeY COWELL CAT 1 IPF REFEREE

Congratulations to Kimberley Cowell who recently took her Cat 1 IPF referees test at the European Equipped Powerlifting Championships and passed, scoring 100% on her exam.

Kim joins a long a prestigious list of IPF referees from British Powerlifting.

If you have been a National Referee for at least two years and would like to be considered for IPF Cat 2, or have been an active Cat 2 IPF Referee and would like to be considered for your Cat 1 exam, get in touch with our Chief Technical Officer and see what opportunities await.

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
  • Course Tutor vacancy
    • Applications end May 22

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:

• World Classic and Equipped Bench Press Championships (all ages), May 23 – 31, Warsaw Poland

• 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.