Cup finals in Iceland receive full media attention

This weekend coincided with the final stage of the Icelandic national cup, which reached its climax on Saturday, with live TV coverage from the final and the semi-finals that started already on Thursday. In total, six live Volleyball knock-out matches were broadcasted. Besides this, there was a full house of spectators during the finals, so the Icelandic Volleyball Federation (BLI) did a good job and delivered a product that was well covered in national media, both by television, social media, and press. There were as many as six live TV transmissions in three days, which is a record, both for the national broadcaster RUV and the national federation’s own channel.

In the men’s finals, the Volleyball Club Hamar, some 50 km east of the capital Reykjavik, succeeded to claim their third consecutive win in the Cup finals. Hamar was taken on by the newcomers in Iceland Volleyball, Vestri from Ísafjörður, a local town of 3,800 inhabitants, where Volleyball has grown popular and whose team travels hundreds of kilometres for most weekly matches, where snowstorms and darkness and difficult mountain roads are a part of the programme. Vestri surprised the reigning Cup Champions by winning the first set, but the team of Hamar led by the twin brothers Kristjan and captain Hafsteinn Valdimarsson, two of the most experienced Volleyball players in Iceland, were not about to give in as they managed to strike back in the next three sets to secure their third title in a row. The sets ended 20-25, 25-19, 25-14, and 25-21 for Hamar. The MVP of the match was Martin Grasza from Hamar.

In the women's final, the Volleyball club KA from Akureyri, the northernmost club in Iceland, took on the Volleyball club HK from Kópavogur, in the Reykjavik larger area. HK and KA also played for the finals in the Cup last year. KA had control from start to finish of the match and secured their third win in a row (25-15, 25-8, 25-23). It was only in the third set that HK came close to team KA which was dominating the field in most aspects of the game, especially through a strong serve and better attack formation, with Helena Kristín Gunnarsdóttir the match MVP leading the way with 19 kills.