STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® season kicks off for British Champions

The STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® season will kick off in style on 5 and 6 June, when four British athletes make their way to Budapest for a weekend of original extreme sport action in the World Trophy, and Women’s and Rookie World Championships, followed by the return of the British TIMBERSPORTS Championship from 12 – 14 June.

For the first time since 2019, GB will have not one, but two British athletes competing in the World Trophy on 6 June with reigning British Champion Glen Penlington and GB team member Graham Turner taking part. The Trophy format is the ultimate test of endurance, where athletes have to compete in four of the TIMBERSPORTS® disciplines back to back; Stock Saw, Underhand Chop, Single Buck, and finally Standing Block Chop. They will be competing against the best athletes in the world including Jack Jordan from New Zealand, the 2024 World Trophy winner, who set a new World Record of 52.53 seconds in the same competition.

But that’s not the only action of the weekend. The Rookie World Championship takes place the day before with British Rookie champion Rowan Luxton competing against eleven other athletes from across the globe for the first time. The previous Rookie World champion, Australian athlete Matt Coffey, will not be defending his title after graduating to the Pro level, so runner-up Kamiel Van Raemdonck from Belgium will be the one to watch in 2026, although Luxton will be keen to deliver on the world stage too after achieving three new personal bests at the recent Rookie Academy.

As if that wasn’t enough, the weekend will deliver another edge of your seat competition, with the first ever Women’s World Championship. With everything to prove and nothing to lose, the world’s best female athletes go head to head for the first time, with Rachel Ferrington from Hay-on-Wye representing Great Britain. Ferrington is no stranger to making history; during last year’s British Women’s Championship, she set a new Women’s World Record in the Stock Saw, which then led to her being selected as the first ever female member of the British team for the 2025 Team World Championship. But she will have a point to prove after she had an issue with her chainsaw during the Team event, and there’s no better place to do it than on the World stage!

With no chance to rest, all four athletes will then head back to the UK to compete in the 2026 British TIMBERSPORTS® Championship which will once again take place at the Royal Three Counties Show in Malvern from 12 – 14 June. Penlington has won the last four British Championships in a row and his experience makes him the one to beat, but after an agonising moment in the final heat of the 2025 Championship when his Hot Saw failed to start in the warm-up, Penlington knows that the title comes down to fine margins.

Turner came sixth in last year’s British Pro Championship, after disqualifications in the Springboard and Hot Saw disciplines saw him drop down the final standings. He will be focussed both on improving his ranking for 2026, as well as keeping his place in the British team for the season finale of the Team World Championship, taking place in Stuttgart in October.

The Pro athletes will need to take on all six TIMBERSPORTS® disciplines, including the Underhand Chop, the Stock Saw, the Standing Block Chop, the Single Buck, the Springboard and the awesome Hot Saw in order to prove they have what it takes to compete with the best British athletes.

A Pro Qualifier will take place on Friday 12 June, where the top six athletes will make it through to the Pro Championship on Saturday 13 June. Viewers can follow all the action on the YouTube livestream, or in person at the Royal Three Counties show to see who takes the top spot this year.

Rob Chatley, who took second place in 2025, has stepped back from the sport this year so the podium is guaranteed to have at least one new face on it. Could that be filled with Jack Morris? Morris secured the top spot in three British Rookie Championships in a row from 2022 to 2024 and then moved up to the Pro league but couldn’t compete in 2025, so could be a dark horse for this year’s competition. Returning athlete Dave Thomas is also a contender. Thomas took a 6 year break from TIMBERSPORTS®, last competing in 2019, but as a former member of the British team, he will want to return with a bang!

The final day of competition sees both the Rookie Championship (for athletes under 25) and the Women’s Championship take place, with Luxton and Ferrington aiming to defend their 2025 titles.

Luxton delivered the fastest time in all five of the Rookie disciplines in the 2025 event, so he will certainly be the one to beat although the lack of preparation time due to the World Championship the weekend before could be a factor in his performance. Two new athletes, Jantzen Bird and Finley Davies, will also be competing for the first time and aiming to make a statement in their TIMBERSPORTS® debut.

Ferrington will also be in the same boat as Luxton, after travelling back from Budapest just days before the 2026 British Women’s Championship. But the dedication she has shown to the sport since taking it up only three years ago means that she has delivered impressive results in a very short time. Ferrington travelled to Tasmania over the winter to take part in the wood-chopping season there and will be keen to show that her World Record time on the Stock Saw wasn’t just a one-off.

Georgia Lewis, Cat Eccles and Libby Arrowsmith will also be looking to claim the top prize though. Finishing in second, third and fourth place respectively, there were only four points between them in 2025, and all three also secured podium places in other competitions across Europe in the 2025 season so will be looking to continue their run of form.

The British Championship takes place from 12- 14 June at the Royal Three Counties Show in Malvern. Tickets are available from the show website. The Pro, Women’s and Rookie Championships will also be livestreamed via the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS^® YouTube channel. 

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