A/BPU TEAM IN THE EMERALD ISLE!

Post Competition Report from the WPC AWPC European Championships 2026, Limerick, Ireland

We had a huge team of 151 competitors going to the A/WPC European Championships 2026 in Limerick, Ireland.

The team included the automatically qualified reigning European and World Champions as well as massive group of lifters qualified through our regional qualifiers, almost three dozen meets running from August 2025 right through the April 2026.

There was something very different about this team.

We had a mix of very experienced lifters, some with international meets under their belts and a majority who were first time lifting out of home soil. Perhaps it was the mix of old and new Team GB lifters interacting that made the difference. A distinct sense of cohesion, enthusiasm and kindness which ran through the entire British squad. In the following writeup we are sorry for not being able to include each one of you, as the writeup would be longer than War and Peace, but the team truly deserves all the praise!

WPC Ireland President Shane Brodie, the meet director and Irish team leader, is a very long-time promoter, even longer time top level lifter, and the proud owner of the Southside Barbell in Limerick.  He has run World and European championships, charity events and Invitational competitions with a level of production and showmanship which other promoters, like us, curse him for because we constantly get “outstaged” and have to up our game!

The Southside Barbell team were there in force to help set up, run, and tear down the entire thing. Amanda, Shane’s wife was in situ all week to run the weigh ins and work on the back end along with his husband. It is a team effort, and Brodie family is all in on the business, older sons lifting already, youngest ones on cleaning duty!

Shane and the IPO truly surpassed themselves with this one. The staging, lights, sound system, extremely spacious warmup and holding area, constantly packed audience and attention to detail made this a standout event among International meets.

All week something was different, not just with our team but with everyone. The audience was louder than I remember in years, and even the award ceremonies were full of gaiety!

From Day 1 Team GB listened, learned, showed up and READ everything, followed the updates on the event pages and were where they should be every time. This is substantially different from some teams we have taken to internationals, I can tell you that!

Everyone helped each other, commiserated, consoled, gave a needed clip around the ear, prodded, poked and cheered everyone else, including people in opposition to them in their respected classes. Many of our lifters had to step up to fight for their placings, and those who didn’t have opposition really turned on the gas and still pushed it on the 3^rd attempts.

Day 1 had the equipped lifters and that is always hair raising. This time was no different – EXCEPT, no full power equipped bomb outs?! Even Sammy Colgan and Big Aaron with their massive openers got a squat in!

We also had juxtaposition with some of the RAW classes running along side the equipped, and that certainly worked. Also on the same day the adaptive classes had one solid bench from team GB, happy lifter and a gold medal.

Days 2 was the domain of the RAW (yes real RAW, no knee sleeves or knee wraps). It was a delight to see team GB so numerous in this class. As a standout performance wwe have to mention our long-time referee, former secretary of A/BPU, Steve Middleton-Lowes. He not only took a best lifter award but also world records with a 717.5kg total and in the M4 division managed the biggest total he has done in over 10 years!

Day 3 was all about the women’s classic RAW divisions and that was a hell of a day. The atmosphere was truly electric and we had a few hard fought battles.

British teammates taking each other’s squat World Records on the last round, very near bomb outs with a final rescue on the last attempt, and some of our very senior female lifters showing them all what technique can do to pull those final numbers out of the bag.

Day 4 and 5 is where it all got a bit messy. The men’s teen, junior and masters day, followed by the men’s open day classic RAW. These were epic days of some of the best of Irish and British lifters really going head-to-head on best team points, with not many other countries getting a look in. Some of lifters left with less body parts than they arrived with, but even the limping ones were still smiling when they left the building!

The last day was the single lifts day. A long day with a wealth of the best single lifters in Europe crossing the stage. The women’s single lifts were exciting with our own RAW women taking many golds across the board. We also saw some very tired British lifters who were competing for the second time within few days, still pushing the numbers to take the win. We also had some good old stealth manoeuvres in the packed classes, with one wily fox managing the snatch a victory right from under his British team mate’s nose with a sneaky attempt change at the very last deadlift.

We had a strong equipped team in bench taking records, all time world records, bombing trying to take world records, hitting numbers they never thought they would, missing 1^st and 2^nd lifts only to absolutely smoke it on the last final attempt, and just a really all round personal fight for the numbers and medals.

To all of our lifters who travelled to represent GB, thank you. We have taken some very special and memorable teams to far flung countries around the globe. Usually, with the bigger teams of 100+ it can be difficult to get to spend any time or talk to anyone but it felt like everyone was “present”. For us it felt like we actually got time with the team. The team was also there for us, and that we are grateful for.

This Europeans will stay in our memory for a very long time. For the lifting, yes, but more for the camaraderie in the warm up room, the Irish team’s fabulous hospitality, and all the other countries working in and helping each other.

To all of you – please congratulate our team who took best overall country, to Shane and everyone in Ireland who accommodated us, thank you and to the WPC family of all the countries who attended, new and old faces;

See you next year.

Go raibh míle maith agat!