DALE GARLAND marked his British international debut with a victory in his first race in a GB vest. The island’s most outstanding athlete of any generation won the 400m hurdles in the Loughborough International meeting, beating rivals from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the GB under-20s and Loughborough University.

His time of 51.65sec. was fractionally outside his island record achieved in winning the 2003 Island Games gold, but it was the vest and victory that mattered most to him.

‘I was very happy to get the call and to win was really good,’ said the multi-eventer, who happily admitted his GB selection came earlier than expected.

‘The plan was to get a GB vest for the decathlon this year. I wasn’t really expecting to get a 400 hurdles [one] this early.

Garland also ran the first leg for Britain’s winning 4 x 400 relay squad.

Across the country at Crawley, the Channel Islands AC women continued their fine start to the season with second place in the toughest match they are likely to encounter in Division One of the Southern Women’s League.