21.05.2025

European crane operator championships

The Finnish Mobile Crane Association – Infra - is organising what it claims to be the first ever European Crane Operator Championships, to be held during the Maxpo fair in Hyvinkää, Finland from 29 to 30th August.

The competition, named 'Golden Crane', will test operators on safety, speed and accuracy on the operation of mobile cranes.
The grand prize includes a one week trip to Conexpo in Las Vegas next year, with trophies also awarded to the three best operators. Registration is already open, with places allocated on a first come, first served basis.

The Maxpo fair - Finland's largest exhibition for earthmoving and environmental maintenance machinery - will run from the 28th to the 30th of August at Hyvinkää Airport- north of Helsinki.
Click here to register for the event

Vertikal Comment

While we applaud anyone who organises such as contest, it is by no means the first in Europe, A multiple stage competition was held in the UK at the start of the 1980s, and that might not have been the first, The annual Hiab-Vertikal Challenge was held every year at SED in the early 2000s and Liebherr organised a multi stage tower crane operator of the year competition in 2005 and in 2022 Hiab ran the ‘World Crane Championship’ with stages held worldwide.

Having said all that, we salute the Finns for introducing such an initiative.