Iceland lead the standings by a significant margin after the first day of the European Athletics Team Championships 3rd Division in Maribor, Slovenia on Tuesday (24).
After amassing six victories across the first day programme - including a double in the 4x100m to round off proceedings - Iceland sits atop the standings with 260 points with a clear cushion over Luxembourg (219.5 points).
Moldova are currently third after day one although a costly disqualification in the men’s 4x100m only gives them a one-point buffer over Bosnia & Herzegovina for the crucial third promotion spot after 20 of 37 points - 197 to 196 points.
Iceland fortified their promotion prospects by winning both the men’s 4x100m in 40.85 and the women’s 4x100m in 46.03.
Other Icelandic victories on the first day came courtesy of Hilmar Orn Jonsson who won the men’s hammer with 73.44m ahead of Moldova’s Serghei Marghiev (70.26m) along with Ivar Kristinn Jasonarson in the 400m hurdles (52.06), Karen Sif Arsaelsdottir in the pole vault (3.55m) and Arndis Dilja Oskarsdottir in the javelin (51.60m).
Despite most of their top names absent from this year’s competition, Luxembourg are also in a comfortable position heading into day two while Moldova will be keen not to drop any more points in their bid for promotion.
However, one of the best performances of the day came courtesy of former world and European U18 and U20 champion Alexandra Emilianov who won the discus by almost 10 metres with a season’s best of 61.84m ahead of Iceland’s Hera Christensen with 53.80m.
A second Moldovan win of the day came in the 3000m steeplechase with Andreea Stavila winning in 9:55.81 ahead of Andrea Kolbeinsdottir who set an Icelandic record of 10:07.38.
Albanian trailblazer Luiza Gega, who won gold in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2022 European Athletics Championships, did not compete.
There were also a brace of notable results for North Macedonia who are currently eighth in the standings. European indoor finalist Andreas Trajkovski jumped 7.83m for victory in the long jump ahead of Iceland’s Daniel Ingi Egilsson (7.79m) before anchoring his country to victory in the 4x100m in a North Macedonian record of 40.89, the second fastest time of the day.
Dario Ivanovski, who competed for North Macedonia in the marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, also won the 5000m in a gun-to-tape 14:04.06 ahead of Icelandic favourite Baldvin Magnusson in 14:30.71.
Also on the track, there were notable victories and national records for Albania's Franko Burraj in the 400m in 45.87 and for San Marino's Alessandra Gasparelli in the 100m in 11.50.