New Zealand will hold the 20th Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships at the home of Golden Shears in Masterton in 2026.

Confirmation came at the Golden Shears World Council meeting in Edinburgh on the eve of the 2023 championships at the Royal Highland Show.

The event is expected to be held over four days on March 4-7, 2026, in conjunction with the Golden Shears International Shearing and Woolhandling Championships, which have been held in Masterton’s War Memorial Stadium annually since 1961, apart from Covid-era cancellations in 2021 and 2022.

The first World Championships were held in England in 1977.

Since then they have been held in New Zealand five times – in Masterton in 1980, 1988, 1996 and 2012, and in Invercargill in 2017.