21st June 2013 06:56
The 3rd League match is being staged in Banská Bystrica this weekend and the Slovaks will start as favourites with Latvia to go up. Both teams were relegated two years ago in Novi Sad in a division of eight teams.
This time it is 15 with opposition from the Athletic Association of Small States of Europe, Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova and Montenegro.
Slovakia have plenty of depth in their events, with hammer thrower Marcel Lomnicky a strong candidate for maximum points. His season's best of 78.15m has put him ninth on the European Athletics rankings, less than three centimetres behind Hungary's Olympic and European champion Krisztian Pars who is top with 81.02m.
Lomnicky will have good support in the team from the Veldakova twins as Dana has cleared 14.31m in the triple jump, the seventh best in Europe this year, and Jana has leaped 6.69m in the long jump, the 12th best.
It will be a busy weekend for Latvia's Laura Ikauniece, the bronze medallist in the heptathlon at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki 12 months ago, as she runs both the 100m and 100m hurdles.
Moldova, Iceland, Bosnia and Azerbaijan should provide the toughest challenge to Slovakia and Latvia.