DALE GARLAND has put his summer hols on hold – he is off to the Olympics. The Guernsey athlete got the shock call that he was in the Great Britain 4×400 relay squad, just five minutes before he boarded a plane to return home.
He could scarcely believe it. ‘I thought it was all over,’ he said a few hours after receiving the surprise call from John Trower, head of UK athletics’ sprints and relays.
‘I’d expected a call either way, but expected it to say that’s it, you’re not in.’
On the contrary, Trower told him he was the sixth and last man in and said that his selection was perhaps down to ‘Guernsey luck’ and his excellent run for the GB team at the European Cup in Annecy, when he was second quickest of the British quartet.
On that occasion he ran a 45.87sec. split, well inside his personal and season’s best time for 400.
But it obviously registered in the minds of the people who matter, because while the other five squad members fill the top-five spots in the national one-lap rankings, Garland stands at just 19th.
Garland’s hopes of going as a 400m hurdler, an event which has seen him top the national rankings for most of the summer, were hit by another untimely hamstring injury, but with the team not due to leave for their training camp until 4 August and the 4×400 relay not until the end of the Beijing Games, the Guernseyman has plenty of time to get himself back into top shape.
Article posted on 21st July, 2008 - 2.30pm
Loading ...
Most Commented: