By stick, foot and ski, Latvian athletes make the news

RIGA - A handful of Latvian athletes, from footballers to biathletes,
have been making news around the world in recent weeks.

In the rink, defenseman Sandis Ozolins and goaltender Arturs Irbe
will be on the ice for the World team when it takes on a squad of
North Americans in the National Hockey League All-Star game Feb. 6.

This year's game will be the third when NHL stars are divided into
North American and World squads.

World team officials announced last week that Ozolins, a standout
with the Colorado Avalanche, will join Nicklas Lindstrom of Sweden
and the Detroit Red Wings as the teams starting defensive line.

Dominik Hasek, a Czech native and the team's would-be starting
goalie, will be sidelined with a groin injury, opening the door for
either fellow Czech Roman Turek or Latvia's Irbe.

Czech superstar Jaromir Jagr will headline the World team's starting
offensive line, joined by Finland's Teemu Selanne and Mats Sundin of
Sweden.

Five Canadians will start for the North Americans, including lead
vote-getter Paul Kariya of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Steve Yzerman
and Brendan Shanahan of Detroit on offense.

Chris Pronger of the St. Louis Blues and Rob Blake of the Los Angeles
Kings are the scheduled starters on defense and Toronto Maple Leafs
goaltender Curtis Joseph will draw net-minding duties.

On the soccer pitch, Latvian footballer Martins Bleidelis, a star
midfielder for Latvia's eight-time defending national champions
Skonto Riga, is still waiting to cash in on a lucrative contract in
England's Premier League after the UK government turned down his work
permit application last month.

The English club Southhampton bought Bleidalis' contract from Skonto
late last year for a reported 600,000 pounds ($967,000) and hopes to
add its second Latvian since last spring when it signed former Skonto
star Marian Prahars.

Like Prahars, Bleidalis is facing a work permit problems based
British law that requires a player outside the European Union to be
ranked in the top 70 in the Federation of International Football
Association poll over a two-year period.

After a rough stretch in 1997, Skonto's ranking dropped from the low 60s to 71.

"We are submitting an appeal and are currently waiting for a date
when it will be heard,"said Southampton team Secretary Brian
Truscott. "We are hopeful this will be resolved."

In a sport more befitting the season up north, the Latvian men's
biathlon team is in the midst of that sport's World Cup tour.

An increasingly popular Olympic sport, the biathlon combines Nordic
skiing and riflery.

Latvian Jekabs Nakums is currently ranked 14th in the world and the
Latvian men's team finished 11th in the 4 X 7.5-kilometer relay at a
World Cup event in Oberhoff, Germany last week.

The Latvian relay team has fallen in recent weeks.

It started the World Cup season with a fourth-place finish in
Hochfilzen, Austria in early December then dropped to seventh a week
later in Pokljuka, Slovenia.

The boys will be armed and skiing again this week in Ruhpolding, Germany.