British Bouldering Championships 2026

BMC British Bouldering Championships

Depot Climbing Manchester – January 24/25th 2026

1 year on, we’re back in Manchester for the British Bouldering Championships, but this time, hosted at Depot Manchester after last year’s event at BIG Depot Manchester.

This is the third year of the event being held indoors, before the beginning of the international season.

The British Bouldering Championships is the key selection event for climbing athletes hoping to make the GB Climbing team ahead of the 2026 international season. 2026 did see the notable omissions of last year’s defending female champion, Erin McNeice, who withdrew from competition for personal reasons, and Olympic gold medalist Toby Roberts, who withdrew ahead of the event through injury.

This set up a great competitive weekend of bouldering for those involved, with a stacked field of the strongest competition climbers in the country, notably with Depot Climbing athletes Emma Edwards and Dayan Akhtar coming off strong 2025 seasons and being crowned Battle of Britain champions respectively in November.

Qualifying for the event took place on Saturday, 24th, with 167 senior competitors vying to make it through to Sunday’s semi-finals and possibly, the final!

The big names came out swinging in qualifying, with Emma Edwards leading the pack, closely followed by Lucy Garlick and 2024’s champion, Zoe Peetermans in 3rd place.

Meanwhile, in the men’s qualifying round, Max Milne and Hamish McArthur led the qualifying, with a familiar pack just behind with the likes of Jack MacDougall, Dayan Akhtar and Sam Butterworth.

Sunday’s senior semi finals was set up nicely, with all the main names you’d expect making it through, with a couple of wild cards making for some tantalising viewing on Sunday morning.

With 20 spaces available for the semi-final round, almost 170 climbers were whittled down to the top 20 for each male and female category.

Jack MacDougall led the male semis, as the only athlete to flash Boulder 1 and end the round with 3 tops from 4 blocs. Hot on his heels were Max Milne and Dayan Akhtar with 2 tops each.  

Perhaps the most notable performance from the men’s semis was Jacob Amos, the 17-year-old, clinching the final spot following an impressive qualifying performance. 

Having had only 1 season on the youth international competition circuit, 1 top and 2 zones over the 4 boulders were enough to seal a finals debut.

Meanwhile, in the senior female semi-finals, Emma Edwards continued her dominance, topping 3 out of 4 boulders on her second attempt, with 4 zones.

After a strong debut international season, making numerous semis and finals across the World Cup and World Championships circuits, Emma is a formidable talent who we are going to be hearing a lot more of in the coming years.

Izzy Bridgens has performed well on the national circuit and qualified for finals in 2nd place with 3 tops and 3 zones, ahead of the 2024 champion, Zoe Peetermans, who managed two tops and 4 zones.

Lucy Garlick was the only other climber to make a semi top, topping the last boulder to reach finals in 5th place. Just half of the mens field were able to top Boulder 1, with Hamihs McArthur making the best effort of a top in 3 attempts.

16 men and women now moved forward to Sunday evening’s finals, following on from a tough semi-final round. A small crowd gathered, with countless viewers tuning into the live stream on the BMC YouTube channel to see who would be crowned the male and female British Bouldering Champions of 2026.

Finals kicked off with debutants Livvy Gent and Jacob Amos coming out first, with both faced with technical, cordiantion slabs on a mixture of no and dual tex holds. Livvy got the top after 5 attempts, with Jacob having to walk away with a zone after 8 attempts in the allotted time scale.

Women’s boulder 1 saw every competitor top, but only Izzy Bridgens and Emma Edwards were able to flash it.  Hamish McArthur gave the bets mens performance on Boulder 1, getting a top in 3 attempts.

Boulder 2 provided different challenges for both the male and female categories, the men’s involving a swing, catch and toe-hook move, and the women having to contend with some tough compression moves and powerful heel hooking.

Catching the toe-hook on Mens 2 was a theme amongst the mens efforts, causing all the competitors some trouble before having to contend with a big sloping plywood volume.

None of the men were able to top boulder 2, with Dayan making the best effort, reaching the zone on his first attempt and only dropping when within touching distance of the final hold.   

Eugenie Robinson-Lee was the first female to top Women’s 2 in just 3 attempts, before Lucy Garlick, Zoe Peetermans and Emma Edwrads making relatively light work of the boulder.

Emma once again controlled proceedings with a top and zone in just two attempts to lead the field at the halfway point.

Men’s 3 was a bizarre appearing bloc predominantly on big orange blobs, with an obvious crux, generating momentum enough to swing into a press and a drop-knee to match the final hold, all in a relatively horizontal manner.

Dayan, Jack and Hamish were all able to flash the boulder, with Luca Martins and Rhys Conlon managing to top in 3 and 4 attempts, respectively.

Women’s 3 kicked off with a big shoulder move, forcing a spin and tension needed to hold the position, before continuing into small crimps, gastons and slopers to the top. 

Just Isabella Edgington, Lucy Garlick, Zoe Peetermans and Emma Edwards were able to top the boulder, and the women’s field split into the final positions at the halfway point.

The final boulders of the 2026 British Bouldering Championships provided some impressive scenes and deciding sends.

Women’s 4 involved stacked coordination moves, from a dynamic upwards move from the start holds, to a sideways dyno and paddle move to the top.

The only flashes came from Isabella Edgington and the unstoppable Emma, who cruised to the title with 4 tops, in 3 flashes and one second attempt.

Mens 4 involved campus movement up a steep roof on big sloping holds, which proved a tough final bloc,  with only Max Milne topping the boulder with an impressive flash, and only Dayan came close, reaching the zone on his first attempt, but unable to finish the boulder, dropping agonisingly short of the top hold attempting to get into a powerful press.

That was enough for Dayan to take the win, with 2tops from 4, making zones on each bloc, taking him past Jack MacDougall, who was unable to gain a zone score and earning him a first British Bouldering Championships title.

Depot Climbing Athletes Emma Edwards & Dayan Akhtar Win Gold

It was a dominant display from Depot Climbing’s very own Emma Edwards, who, alongside fellow Depot athlete Dayan Akhtar, came through the Depot Academy before reaching the GB Climbing team and pathway.

Dayan –“It feels good, I don’t really have the words right now.  I’ve done four British champs now, with a few podiums, and I finally got it done toda,y so I’m pretty happy!”

“I had a really successful season last year, but for me, personally, it was quite a tough year still. So to start the year off today, as I have, with my family here as well, it means a lot to me. I’m really happy.”

Emma – “I’m pretty happy. I definitely felt pressure because I could hear everyone was topping, so I wanted to take my time and make sure I didn’t make any silly mistakes, but it was really good, and I was ready.”

“I found it really hard (dealing with the pressure), it’s definitely been a mentally challenging comp, and I’m just happy that in this round (finals) I could be happy, enjoy it and put in a good effort on the boulders.  I’m really looking forward to the World Cup season now, it’s going to be really good, and I’m excited.”

The final standings were as follows, with all results available via the BMC results page using the link.

Mens Final Standings:

1. Dayan Akhtar
2. Jack MacDougall
3. Hamish McArthur
4. Luca Martins
5. Max Milne
6. Rhys Conlon
7. Aiden Dunne
8. Jacob Amos

Women’s Final Standings:

1. Emma Edwards
2. Zoe Peetermans
3. Lucy Garlick
4. Isabella Edgington
5. Eugenie Robinson Lee
6. Izzy Birdgens
7. Isabella Rinaldi
8. Livvy Gent