Team GB travel to Milan for STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® World Championship

For the first time ever, the British TIMBERSPORTS® team will feature a female competitor when they travel to Milan for the biggest event of the logger sports season, the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® World Championship later this month. Taking place in Milan, Italy, the 20th World Championship promises to have audiences on the edge of their seats at the Allianz Cloud Arena on 24th and 25th October. 

Following the British TIMBERSPORTS® Championship in June, a selection process took place to decide which athletes should represent Great Britain in the Team event. Glen Penlington secured his place early after winning his fourth British Championship in a row, with personal best times in two of the four team disciplines. But a surprise option for selection was Women’s Champion, Rachel Ferrington from Hay-on-Wye, after she delivered a blistering, new Women’s World Record in the Stock Saw discipline.  It took her just 8.82 seconds to cut two discs, or ‘cookies’, with a STIHL MS 661 chainsaw, which ended up being the fastest time of the whole Championship weekend, and secured her a deserved place on Team GB. 

Each nation can take five athletes, plus a rookie competitor, as part of their team, so with Penlington and Ferrington confirmed, four other spaces were available. Alongside 2025 Rookie Champion Rowan Luxton, the final names added to the team sheet were Team GB regulars Rob Chatley from Hanley Broadheath in Worcestershire, Graham Turner from Penicuik, Scotland and Tom Redmond from Bere Regis, Dorset.  

In the Team event, the athletes complete four TIMBERSPORTS® disciplines in a relay; the Stock Saw, the Underhand Chop, the Single Buck and the Standing Block Chop. Each team competes in head-to-head heats against other national teams, with the slowest team knocked out and the fastest team moving on to the next round. All six competitors have been training hard in a series of training camps in the months prior to the Championship, in the hopes of improving on their 13th placed finish last year.

“Bringing Rachel into the team adds a fresh face and a new dynamic at the training camps. She is relatively new to the sport, but has trained really hard and has also competed in two other international TIMBERSPORTS® competitions already this year, which has given her valuable experience.” said Vicky Tween, STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Team Manager.

Female athletes have competed in the Team World Championship before, but this will be the first time that a woman has been part of the British team. Ferrington is in good company though; three other national teams feature female competitors this year, and she’ll be hoping to make her mark on the world stage in Milan. Rookie athlete, Rowan Luxton, from Llandrindod Wells in Powys, will also be excited to join the British Team for the first time after his impressive win in the British Rookie Championship. 

Penlington, Chatley, Turner and Redmond have all represented Great Britain at the World Championship before, but they know that there is always room for improvement, which is why the training camps are so useful for working on everything from the changeovers between disciplines to the team morale. Whilst they are all fierce rivals when competing against each other in the British Championship, they will need to come together in Milan if they want to deliver their best result. 

If you want to see where Team GB place in the 2025 TIMBERSPORTS® World Championship, you can watch the full competition live on the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® YouTube channel from 7pm on Friday 24th October.