DALE GARLAND could be set for a full British vest and an appearance at the Europa Cup in July after smashing his own island decathlon record over the weekend. Garland finished second of 18 as nearly all the country’s top combined-eventers gathered at Woodford Green in Essex.

The Guernseyman’s tally of 7,171 points improved on his Commonwealth Games total by 252 points and it could have been another hundred more but for a mysterious no-jump call in the long jump.

All told, he set five new personal bests in the 10 events and his 110m hurdles time of 14.90sec. was a new island record.

‘Yeah, I was very pleased,’ said Garland, who is now up to third in the UK rankings behind Anthony Sawyer, the winner at Woodford Green with 7,471, and John Heanley.

‘The long jump was very upsetting,’ said the Guernsey star.

‘It was a really big no jump, perhaps a personal best. I couldn’t see any mark on the board and I lost probably 100 points on that.’

His other personal bests came in the 100m, high jump, shot putt and javelin.

In the 100m he clocked an electronically-timed 11.00sec., he jumped 1.98m in the high jump, pushed his shot best out to 10.88m and his javelin to 53.35m.

His long jump was a disappointing 6.80m, half-a-metre down on his island record, his 400m time was 48.54sec and 1,500m, in which he had no-one to push him, 4min. 23sec.

His discus was a creditable 31.80m.