The Lífland Champions League kicks off

The first competition on Thursday January 27th is fourgait V1 and starts at 19:00 GMT in the riding arena Ölfushöll. The start list of the evening can be found here. Twenty-four of Iceland’s elite riders will compete on well trained and talented, famous or new horses.

The Champions Lounge are eight 20-minute episodes produced by Alendis for the Champions League. Each episode is dedicated to one team. Edda Hrund Hinriksdóttir interviews the contestants about their expectations, goals, preparations and horses for the competition. The Champions Lounge can be watched on alendis.tv and on the Alendis app. The interviews are in Icelandic but with English and German subtitles.

“We visit all of the Icelandic Champions League’s teams and talk to them about their horses and their goals,” says Edda Hrund Hinriksdóttir, Alendis project manager and the programme’s producer.

Before each tournament, there will be interviews with experts and analysis on the starting line-ups and expectations before and after. There will also be discussions during intermission and after each tournament when the expert guests will go over the results.

“We want to bring the coffee room discussions onto the screen so that people can express their opinions and predictions and such and create more sport-like discussions around the Icelandic Champions League like we know from football and most other sports. There are some fabulous people who will join us and Telma Tómasson will be the presenter,” elaborates Edda. Telma is a well-known news anchor in Iceland. She is also a great horse enthusiast and has narrated the Icelandic Champions League in past years.

In the Lífland Icelandic Champions League, eight teams and 40 riders will compete in eight different disciplines. V1 will take place on 27 January; T2 on 10 February; F1 on 25 February; Gæðingafimi (gæðinga dressage) on 18 March; PP1 and 150m pace on 26 March; and T1 and 100-meter pace at the final event on 9 April.

Icelandic television station RÚV2 will broadcast live in Iceland from all tournaments. Alendis will stream the broadcasts with narrations in Icelandic and English and it will be possible to buy access by day pass or subscription. Buyers will get access to all of Alendis’s content, including videos from all major tournaments in Iceland last year.

“We made our debut in May 2020 and we streamed from all major tournaments last summer. That’s around 1000 hours of content,” says Edda. Alendis’s streaming has proven popular in Iceland as well as abroad.

Jelena Ohm, Horses of Iceland project manager, says: “Alendis is a fantastic project and an example of innovation which can to the rescue at exactly the right time during COVID. To stream top-quality live broadcasts with narration in different languages, opens a lot of doors for Icelandic horsemanship, all over the world. It will be exciting to watch the Icelandic Champions League this winter and all of the interesting programmes Alendis will offer. There will be something for everyone!”

Text: Hilda Karen Garðarsdóttir Myndir: Louisa Lilja