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Highest Precision
Already in the Corporate Cup on Thursday, it became apparent how much new the course designers had prepared: In "Wrecking Balls," kettlebells and a zip line demanded the highest precision, in "Standing Discs," the teams passed three differently sized discs from forklift to forklift, brought them over the "Kaup Hero Ramp," and threaded them onto horizontal bars up to four meters high. In the semi-finals and finals, beverage crates had to be transported over the "Kaup Hero Ramp" and stacked on a truss tower. On Friday, the national teams picked up small duck-shaped forklifts with hooks in the "Duck Lift" and set them down on a target plate; in the "Ball Drop," they passed soccer balls to the mast lift forklift and threw them into a column approximately five meters high.
Finesse Required
In the individual competitions for women and men, finesse was required in round 1 of the "Mini Puzzle": Puzzle pieces had to be inserted through the matching cutouts of a template. In the "76" course, the same number of golf balls were on tees in a tub, and those who lost balls during the slalom ride received penalty seconds, including some top favorites. On Saturday, during the "Automated Deadlifts," the task was to assemble and safely lay down a barbell. The semi-final and final were ultimately decided by the "Cable Drum Slider": Drivers picked up "cable drums" from a vertically hanging truss rod in the air, sent them down a slide, and maneuvered them over the "Kaup Hero Ramp."
Rarely have the Stapler Cup Finals been so open as in this year: None of the four previous year's champions could defend their title. Benjamin Danker missed the finals by a few meters, Swetlana Lattermann failed in the semi-finals, Team Germany stumbled over the barbell in round 3, and ZF Friedrichshafen was eliminated in the Corporate Cup after the first round.
Own Stories
However, others wrote their own stories: Veteran Jörg Klößinger crowned his twelfth participation with the world championship title, Maren Schlabitz won an exciting final duel at her first Stapler Cup in Aschaffenburg, and Belgium secured the team title for the second time after 2024.
In the final runs, small details decided between joy and disappointment: a driving error, a mishap on the "Kaup Hero Ramp," a stack of crates that wasn't securely standing. Three days, over 110 drivers from eleven countries, and more than 75,000 fans on-site and in the livestream have shown: Forklift sports has long arrived on the big international stage.
28 drivers from eight countries.
In the two preliminary rounds on Friday, it was mainly experienced starters who prevailed: defending champion Benjamin Danker, Jörg Klößinger in his 12th participation, and Carsten Diezel, participating for the eighth time, secured their entry into round 3 with best times. But Stapler Cup debutant Viktoras Omelcenko from Lithuania also managed to qualify and secure a place in the top 10.
For the first time this year, there was a separate Young Talents Qualifier: The three best young talents between 18 and 25 years old secured their starting place in the finals there. Cedric Weingärtner, Jan Pirsc, and Lorenz Regler approached the challenges of the courses highly motivated, but none of the young talents could break into the top 10 against the experienced "veterans."
In the "Automated Deadlifts" course in round 3, the automated underslung tractor C-MATIC delivered the plates for dumbbell construction, and the drivers engaged in an extremely exciting battle for the four places in the semifinals. Two drivers fell victim to the outer course boundary, while the others presented themselves as experienced and composed. With an impressive best time of 3:38.0 minutes, top favorite Jörg Klößinger drove into first place, closely followed by defending champion Benjamin Danker, Patrick Reppert, and Adnan Catic.
In the semifinals and finals, the "Cable Drum Slider" awaited the drivers. Jörg Klößinger and Adnan Catic drove into the finals, Benjamin Danker narrowly missed out on the finals by a few meters and finished third ahead of Patrick Reppert. Jörg Klößinger from Oberdachstetten decided the battle for the Men's Forklift World Championship title for himself after a driving mistake by Adnan Catic and deservedly crowned himself the Men's Forklift World Champion 2026.
Same courses, identical requirements
Rebecca Wallner from Bremerhaven advanced to the next round with over a 3-minute lead ahead of Melanie Holl and Marleen Sinikas from Estonia. Defending champion Swetlana Lattermann narrowly made it to the next round, while some top favorites were ousted by newcomers in the Stapler Cup.
Dramatic moments occurred in the "Automated Deadlifts" course in round 3 of the women's competition: Three drivers had to be disqualified for crossing the course boundary. Only five out of ten drivers completed the course without errors. Jennifer Rieger, participating for the third time in the Stapler Cup finals, Swetlana Lattermann, World Champion from 2025 and Vice-World Champion 2024, Katrin Knochenhauer (2nd time in the finals), and Stapler Cup debutant Maren Schlabitz secured places in the semifinals with the necessary concentration and composure.
In the semifinals, it was also the end of the road for reigning World Champion Swetlana Lattermann. In contrast, Maren Schlabitz and Jennifer Rieger confidently advanced to the finals. There, Schlabitz, in a close head-to-head duel, displayed strong nerves and high concentration against the defending champion and crowned herself the Women's Forklift World Champion 2026 in her first participation in the Stapler Cup finals.
Eleven national teams competed
Sensibility and good judgment brought the teams from Belgium and Germany the best times in rounds 1 and 2. Germany was ahead in the “Ducklifts” and achieved a top time of 3:25:10 min. In this course, some teams failed at the small rubber ducks and did not manage the task within the given time. In the “Ball Drops” course, Team Germany could not defend its first place – the four balls were placed in the columns faster by the teams from Croatia, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In the overall ranking, Belgium entered round 3 on Saturday as the leader, with Germany in second and the Netherlands in third place.
In round 3, clean handovers and precise assembly of the barbell in the course called “Deadlifts” decided the entry into the semifinals. Defending champion Germany, almost certainly with the best time in a top-4 position, surprisingly failed at placing the barbell and was unexpectedly eliminated. Slovakia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Slovenia, on the other hand, achieved very good times with confident runs and thus reached the semifinals.
Loud cheers
In the semifinals, the Slovenian and Belgian teams were the fastest and thus made it to the final. There, both teams were neck and neck for a long time, but on the “Kaup Hero Ramp,” the ball tower of the Slovenians collapsed, paving the way for the Belgians, who completed the course amidst loud cheers. After 2024, the team secured the title of Team Forklift World Champion for the second time. Slovakia came third ahead of the Netherlands.
Already on Thursday, 14 company teams made the start of the Stapler Cup Finals. In the Corporate Cup, the who’s who of the German industry competes year after year, in 2026 among others Continental, Frosta, Lorenz Snacks, CWS Workwear, and defending champion ZF Friedrichshafen.
In round 1, the new course “Wrecking Balls” had to be mastered. Kuehne + Nagel managed this with an impressive best time, but it was not enough to make it to the semifinals. In round 2, Frosta’s team, one of the favorites in the participant field, brought the three discs of the “Standing Discs” course to the finish the fastest. Defending champion ZF Friedrichshafen, on the other hand, unexpectedly dropped out in round 1. Thus, HELU, Grüner Systemtechnik, Frosta, and surprisingly the team from Kartoffelhof Hölck – a family-run business in northern Germany, participating in the Stapler Cup for the first time, full of motivation to take on the “big ones” – secured themselves a place in the semifinals.
In the semifinals, “Fourteen Crates” awaited the teams. Kartoffelhof Hölck stacked the beverage crates in 7:31:40 min. and HELU in 7:57:20 min. on the truss tower, entering the final as the fastest teams. The other semifinalists Grüner Systemtechnik and Frosta showed solid performances, but were disqualified because their stack of crates collapsed when the fork tines were pulled out for the last time.
Confident and secure
The two finalists Helu and Kartoffelhof Hölck engaged in a real neck-and-neck race for the championship title. Both confidently brought their – now 16 – crates back over the “Kaup Hero Ramp,” but only Helu was able to securely place the stack of crates on the truss tower. With a fantastic final time of 7:07:6 minutes, the Helu team was then celebrated as the Corporate Cup Champion 2026 in the Linde MH Arena.
The driving level was enormously high this year. The new courses demanded everything from the drivers and showed how closely the world’s elite is now aligned,” concludes Stapler Cup Sports Director Martin Stadtmüller.
Translated automatically from German.
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