This Is Guernsey

By Aaron Scoones

IN three weeks’ time, Dale Garland (pictured) will be living the Olympic dream. Or he hopes he will be. The 27-year-old Sarnian has just arrived at Great Britain’s training camp in Macau, southern China, for the Beijing Olympics which starts with a lavish opening ceremony on Friday.

Garland has been selected for Britain’s 4×400m relay team which will fly to the Games just before the event’s heats and final on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 August. He will be one of 313 British Olympians in China and the first Sarnian to compete in athletics at the Olympics.

‘To be honest when I was young I never thought that I would have the opportunity [to go to the Olympics],’ said Garland on Friday. ‘Five years ago I started improving and then I thought I could do it. It’s a dream come true. It’s definitely exciting. I’m at the airport at the moment wearing my Great Britain tracksuit and people are wishing me good luck.

‘It’s a bit different but it’s going to be a brilliant experience.’

Garland tried to put into words what makes the Olympics so special.

‘It’s a spectacle and it’s literally the biggest show on the earth,’ he said.

‘I’m just going to take in the atmosphere and hopefully see some of the biggest names in my sport and other sports. Obviously I want to compete, but I’m going to take in the show as well.’

Garland is one of six athletes in the 4×400m relay squad.

The others are Michael Bingham, Ricard Buck, Martyn Rooney, Andrew Steele and Rob Tobin. The ranking lists suggest the first four are Rooney, Steele, Tobin and Bingham. There is a very good chance that Garland will not see any action.

‘It’s hard to say [whether I will run],’ he said. ‘It all depends on how people are running and how the coach wants to play it.

‘Also there could be injury worries.

‘I’ve got two or three weeks to show how fast I’m running on the track.’

Garland had originally wanted to go for the 400m hurdles.

Aiming to reach the A-standard qualifying time of 49.2sec, it was always going to be a hard task for him.

His personal best is 49.79 that he set last year and his quickest time this year is 50.17.

His hopes were finally dashed when an old hamstring injury flared up at the start of last month resulting in him missing the Great Britain trials in Birmingham.

It had always been his intention to try and also make the 4×400m relay, but not running at the trials seriously dented his chances.

With five of the six places named in the team, Garland then had a final chance to grab the last spot at the European Permit meeting at Loughborough on Thursday 17 July.

But a time of 47.4 that saw him finish well down the field had seemingly kissed away any chance of him making it to Beijing.

However, a few days later he received a surprise phone call from John Trower, head of UK Athletics’ sprints and relays, saying he was in on the strength of his performance at the European Cup in Annecy where he was the second-fastest of the British quartet.

‘I thought it was all over,’ said Garland at the time.

‘I’d expected a call either way, but expected it to say, “That’s it, you’re not in”.’

But while the decision understandably made Garland a very happy man, there were a number of people who took exception to it.

A group was set up on social network Facebook called ‘UK Athletics vote no confidence’ that called for people to boycott watching the Olympics and do other protests just because Garland had been selected ahead of Richard Strachan, who had run faster over 400m this season.

The group also makes a claim for Trafford AC’s Rick Yates to be picked instead of Garland.

It now has more than 1,000 members and is growing every day.

But Garland is not letting it affect him.

‘I guess it’s part of what happens when you get some success,’ he said.

‘I’m just going to get on with my job.’

Article posted on 4th August, 2008 - 2.30pm