Fréttir 2005

May 3, 2005:
Ice Cup: Fimmtíuplús - first WSCC team of Iceland

Our first team to participate in a World Curling Championship had made a huge impact on team structure in Akureyri Curling Club since the beginning of this year. Five elderly men (since it was the World SENIOR Curling Championship) formed a team, won the Icelandic Championship and then went to Greenacres in Scotland. There they beat Wales and Australia. After their homecoming it is obvious that they have become more sophisticated and of course they have been very helpful pointing out to other curlers how things are done in other countries.

The skip, Gísli Kristinsson (right) is one of the curling pioneers in Iceland. Ten years ago he, his late wife Marjo and two men from Reykjavik went to Gimli, Manitoba to learn how to curl from Willie Arnason. Costs were payed from a fund, Support Curling in Iceland, which was established by West-Icelanders. Gísli has been hooked on curling ever since. He admits that his deepest curling dream is to see Icelandic teams curling in the Olympics. Gísli has been the president of Akureyri Curling Club from the beginning in May 1996. He has once won the Icelandic Championship, 2003 when he lead the team Vikingar.

Hallgrimur Valsson (second from the left) is vice. He started curling after he saw the president of Iceland on the ice when our Arena was opened – and realized that anyone can curl!

Sigurgeir Haraldssn is second (left). He has won the Icelandic Championship more often than anyone else, three times in the four years it has been ongoing. Sigurgeir has been curling from 1996 and has therefore both curled outside and inside – just as he has done in his other favourite sport, ice hockey. Sigurgeir has won the Icelandic Championship with Akureyri Ice hockey team (SA) several times, first 1980 as a teenager and again many years in a row from 1990-1997. He is still at it and often he comes sweaty and tired to curling practice after playing hockey with old boys for at least an hour.

The lead, Ágúst Hilmarsson (second from the right) lead his team, Fálkar, to silver medal in Ice Cup 2004. He started curling in the year 2000, has twice got silver and this year the gold in the Icelandic Championship.