Shauna Coxsey wins at the final ever CWIF competition
- Friday 27th March 2026
Held in Sheffield, the CWIF is one of the UK's longest-running competitions – the first edition (known as the Climbing Works International Masters) took place in 2007. By the second year, the acronym CWIF (Climbing Works International Festival) was decided upon, and it has been known as this ever since.
This year, after 19 editions of the event, the owners of the Works (Sam Whitaker, Graeme Alderson and Percy Bishton) decided to make the 2026 competition the last one ever. This isn’t some cunning marketing gimmick, but a realisation that big boulder competitions are now flourishing (thanks in large part to walls copying the CWIF idea), and The Climbing Works can happily finish CWIF and move forward with some new ideas. What this means for all those climbers bemoaning the loss of their favourite competition is that 2027 will see a new event run by The Climbing Works, which will push bouldering events into a new era. Watch this space, as they say in the business…
Anyway, what happened at the last ever CWIF? Well, lots of climbers had an amazing day on the qualification day, trying classic boulders from a veteran team of setters. Highlights included a brand-new permanent feature built into the wall – a 25-foot-long horizontal crack system - along with CWIF classics: boulders that look easy but are incredibly difficult. The list of world-class climbers who have come to the CWIF in years gone by, expecting glory only to be shut down by some vertical filth that some old lady in bendy boots just flashed is long and memorable... Nalle Hukativel, Jimmy Webb, etc, etc. The CWIF’s reputation for humbling the world's best is unrivalled!
Semis and Finals saw the usual comp protagonists in action, and scalps were taken. Notably, Olympic gold medallist Toby Roberts failed to progress past the semi-finals, thus proving what we have long known – winning a gold medal at CWIF is harder than the Olympics! There was a surprising appearance from Shauna Coxsey – her first comp for five years (since the Tokyo Olympics) and her first competition as a mum. A pretty brave choice for a former five-time CWIF winner to try and make a comeback at this event, with its stacked field of young athletes more in tune with the modern comp style.
What happened in the final? Who cares, really! You had to be there. That’s what live elite-level sport is all about. The select few hundred lucky souls who had secured a place in the crowd were treated to a vintage battle with some stunning performances, all soundtracked by Percy’s ‘unique’ and often hilarious commentary. In the end, Rei Kawamata from Japan took the honours in the men's competition in a closely fought round, with Dayan Aktar and Sam Hammond rounding out the podium. The women's competition provided the fairytale end to a competition series that has been something of a constant throughout Shauna Coxsey's career. In the face of a very strong, truly international field of athletes, Shauna held her own. Managing to progress furthest on boulders that definitely did not play to her strengths, she even had a few good stabs at a particularly brutal ‘ lâchée’ move that eventually shut all the finalists down. The final result was almost too perfect to have predicted – the winner of her sixth and final CWIF title was Shauna Coxsey. And then it was over. Forever. What a way to go!
