DALE GARLAND has been left sweating on a decathlon place for next month’s European Cup event in the Netherlands. With four spots available in the Great Britain combined events team, the Guernsey record-holder now lies fourth in the national rankings and is keeping his fingers crossed that his place won’t go to former World Championship silver medallist and Olympic Games hopeful Dean Macey.

Garland had been third in the national rankings until this weekend when rival decathlete Brendan McConville leapfrogged him at the IAAF Combined Events Challenge in Arles, France.

The Guernseyman, who on the same day became the first GIAAC member to win a senior British vest at the Loughborough Internatio-nal, was yesterday ruing his luck.

‘He [McConville] beat me by 90 points and he had the benefit of a plus-seven wind for the 100 metres and a plus wind for the long jump.

‘That puts me fourth and if Macey decides to do it, it will mean I’m gone.’

Garland, though, hasn’t given up all hope of lining up in Hengelo on the first weekend of July.

‘Even if Macey is in the team that doesn’t mean he will do it.’

But Garland needs to know his position soon.

Although the team was believed to have been chosen yesterday it may not be released until today or later.

This weekend’s AAA combined events national championships in Stoke offer him the chance to bounce back up the rankings, but Garland would prefer to save his energies for the European Cup event, saying three exhausting decathlons in six weeks was not what his body needed.

Meanwhile, athletics statistician Ray Hollis has confirmed Garland’s place in the Guernsey record-books as the first Sarnian to represent Britain at senior level.

Keith Falla represented England in the home internationals but not Great Britain.